The 2016 Olympic javelin silver medallist Julius Yego eyes a top-three finish at the Zurich Diamond League on Thursday.
This, he said, will guarantee him points good enough to send him to the Brussels finale on September 13-14.
The javelin competition includes five meets—Doha, Paris, Lausanne, Zurich and Brussels. Only the top six from the first four qualify for the final in Brussels.
The YouTube man, a three-time Olympian, is 10th on the rankings with four points — one from an eighth-place finish in Doha and three from a sixth-place finish in Lausanne last month.
The 35-year-old remains confident.
“I want to ensure I get enough points in the final Diamond League stage in Zurich to enhance my chances of making the final in Brussels,” Yego remarked in an interview.
Winners earn eight points with second and third place earning seven and six points respectively.
Grenada’s Anderson Peters and Jakub Vadlejch of the Czech Republic have already secured their slots in Brussels.
Peters leads the pack with 21 points, five ahead of Vadlejch.
Olympic silver medallist Neeraj Chopra of India is third with 14 points joint same as Germany’s Julian Weber.
Ukraine’s Arthur Felfner is fifth with nine points, Moldova’s Andrian Mardare (sixth with eight points) and Japan’s Roderick Genki Dean (seventh with six points).
“If I make the final in Brussels, then that will be my last competition of the season,” Yego noted.
This year, Yego clinched the African Championships title for a record fifth time in Douala, Cameroon, in June.
He picked a silver medal at the African Games in March, trailing Nigeria’s Chinecherem Nnamdi.
He finished fifth at the Paris Olympic Games with a throw of 87.72m.
After the Diamond League, Yego will start preparing for the 2025 World Championships in Tokyo, Japan.
“I need to start early preparations for the next season. I struggled a lot after sustaining an injury and added some weight at some point since I could not run. I just focused on the gym work without the aerobics which is dangerous for an athlete,” he said.
The entry standard for the World Championships is 85.50m, with the qualification period running from August 1, 2024 to August 24, 2025.
