Yego overtakes Abdelrahman to become Africa’s top ranked Javelin thrower, Nnamdi third
Five-time African Athletics Championships champion, Julius Yego of Kenya is the top ranked javelin thrower in Africa with less than a month to the start of the athletics event of the Olympic Games in Paris, France.
Yego, the first black African and second African man after South Africa’s Maurius Corbett to win the Javelin throw gold at the World outdoor championships moved 13 places up in the latest ranking released by World Athletics at the end of last month.
The Kenyan, silver medal winner and gold medalist in the event at the African Games and African Championships respectively, replaced Egypt’s Ihab Abdelrahman as the 16th best in the world and number one in Africa.
The Egyptian who started the year as the number one ranked thrower in Africa and 15th in the world dropped two places to 18 in the latest ranking while Nigeria’s Nnamdi Chinecherem, top of the list of performances so far this season, also moved from 37 just about a week ago to 24 going to the Olympics, barring any update before the Games.
Interestingly, the three athletes secured the necessary qualification to compete in Paris at the Olympics and one of them could make history as the first African in Games history to win an Olympic title in the event.
They will be encouraged by the fact that two Africans have won at the World outdoor championships level with Africans actually winning the gold and the silver at the 2015 World Athlletics Championships in Beijing, China in 2015.
