Kenya's javelin star Yego up for challenge at Monaco Diamond League meeting
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E-mail Xinhua, July 20, 2017
NAIROBI, July 20 (Xinhua) -- Kenya's javelin world champion and Olympic silver medalist Julius Yego said Thursday that his performance has improved as he heads to Monaco for the Diamond League meeting on Friday.
Yego has had a poor season ever since he returned from Rio Olympics with an ankle injury and has had to contend with bad throws in the last three events he has competed in this season.
But ahead of the Monaco meeting, Yego hopes to reassert his authority in his discipline and reclaim lost ground.
"It is about how my body feels. There has been good response since I started training. But I have to be careful and that is why I take one day at a time. Monaco will be another step for me and hopefully, I will do well," he said.
The men's javelin could be a telling event given the presence of the two Germans who have seized the event by its neck in the space of the past year.
Olympic champion Thomas Rohler has been consistently in 90-metre territory this season, having opened with 93.90m at the IAAF Diamond League meeting in Doha.
But his place behind Jan Zelezny on the world all-time list was taken by compatriot Johannes Vetter, who produced four 90-metre throws on a single night in Lucerne on July 11, the best of them being 94.44m.
Also in the field are Yego, and 2012 Olympic champion Keshorn Walcott of Trinidad and Tobago, as well as the Czech Republic's Jakub Vadlejch, who has a best of 88.02m this season.
In the 800m race, Olympic and world champion Caster Semenya has been unbeatable this season, but the Monaco field includes all those most likely to challenge her, including the Olympic silver and bronze medallists, Francine Niyonsaba of Burundi and Margaret Wambui of Kenya, as well as Canada's world silver medallist Melissa Bishop and the U.S. pair of 2013 world silver medallist Brenda Martinez and US champion Ajee Wilson.
Another significant race for Africa will be the women's 3000m, which brings together Kenya's Olympic 5000m silver medallist Hellen Obiri, Ethiopia's Olympic and World 10,000m record holder Almaz Ayana and Britain' s European indoor 1500m and 3000m champion Laura Muir, 12 days after their rousing contest over the mile in London which saw Obiri set a national record of 4:16.56 and Muir register a personal best of 4:18.03.
It will be Ayana's first competition this year after injury. Ayana will run against Obiri in the shorter 3000 metres alongside Laura Muir and Shannon Rowbury. However, the race will miss the sparks of Ethiopia's Genzebe Dibaba.
Kenya's Olympic 3000m steeplechase champion Conseslus Kipruto faces a field that includes Olympic silver medallist Evan Jager of the United States and his two leading Kenyan rivals, Jairus Birech and 35-year-old double Olympic champion Ezekiel Kemboi.
But Kipruto's biggest challenge may be the ankle problem that caused him to drop out early from the race in Rabat last week.
Olympic 1,500m champion Matt Centrowitz will have a rigorous test against top Kenyans including Timothy Cheruiyot, 21, who leads this season' s world list with 3:30.77, and Ronald Kwemoi, second in the world this year with a 3:30.89 at altitude.
Also lurking in the field with something to prove is Kenya's three-time world champion Asbel Kiprop. Enditem
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