Keshorn Walcott captures javelin gold for Trinidad
(Trinidad Express) Trinidad and Tobago’s Keshorn Walcott stunned a world-class field today, capturing gold in the men’s javelin at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo.
The 32-year-old Olympic champion unleashed a massive 88.16-metre throw on his fourth attempt, which proved unbeatable against a line-up that included Olympic and World champions Neeraj Chopra, Arshad Nadeem, Anderson Peters, and Julian Weber.
India’s defending champion Chopra managed only 84.03m to finish eighth, while Pakistan’s Nadeem was 10th with 82.75m.
Walcott’s triumph came just a day after he barely scraped through qualifying. On Wednesday, he produced a best effort of 83.93m in Group A, finishing fifth and below the automatic qualifying mark of 84.50m. He then had to wait for Group B to finish before securing his spot in the 12-man final.
“The objective was to throw just over 84 metres because we believed that would be enough,” Walcott told the Express. “We fell short, but still made it, so I’m happy with the performance overall. But it could have been better in terms of how the throws were executed.”
In qualifying, Walcott had opened with his 83.93m effort but struggled in subsequent rounds, managing 77.61m in round two and fouling his third attempt.
The 2012 Olympic gold medallist, now in his 30s, showed his competitive fire is far from fading with this world-title performance, reigniting hopes for another Olympic podium in Paris next year.
