Moving Japan games nightmare for aging javelin star Yego
Nairobi, Tuesday
At 32, Africa javelin champion Julius Yego knows he has limited time and capacity to win gold at the Olympic Games.
In another four years, when the next cycle of the Games will take place, Yego is certain he will be too old to make an impact.
Yet he was not certain if the Tokyo Olympic Games would go on as planned from July 24 to August 9 in Japan before Tuesday’s cancellation.
The global COVID-19 pandemic had left the Tokyo Olympics on the cusp of cancelation or postponement.
However, Yego is not leaving anything to chance. He badly needs to upgrade his silver medal he won in the Rio Games back in 2016 to gold.
“I have one mission this season, to win gold. I want it more than before, to add to my career collections,” Yego said in Nairobi on Monday.
“The gold is something that I have dreamt of for a long time. Since my breakthrough at the Beijing World Championships in 2015, I have dreamt of feeling the texture of the gold medal dangling down my neck,” he added.
But that chance to compete at the greatest sporting stage could have been shuttered in a second had the organisers of the Games and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) agreed to cancel the Games because of the coronavirus.
Canada had already said they would not send athletes to Tokyo. Australia, Britain, France, the United States had all called for the review and postponement.
Yet for Yego, still held onto the outside chance, he will be able to raise the bar higher in Tokyo.
“I don’t want to imagine that there may be a potential postponement or a total cancelation of the Tokyo Games. The 2024 Olympics are still far away, and age is catching up with me.” -Xinhua
