The 2010 African Champion, Ihab Abdelrahman El Sayed from Egypt, today set a national record of 83.62 metres in the men’s Javelin Throw qualification at the IAAF World Championships in Moscow.
Competing in Group B inside the Luzhniki stadium in Moscow, El Sayed only needed one throw to erase his old mark of 82.45 metres set at the Mediterranean Games in June this year. It was also his fourth career 80m plus throw since he first achieved that mark in September 2010.
Other African qualifiers was the Youtube-trained Kenyan record-holder, Julius Yego, who threw 80.88 metres in his third and last attempt after a first effort of 79.56 metres and a foul on the second.
“The conditions today were good, not too warm, not too cold,” said Yego. “Group A was strong group with Tero, Olympic champion Keshorn, Andreas… so I hope I will make it to the final.”
“After my breakthrough in 2011, I benefited from an IAAF scholarship to spend a few months training in Finland in 2012 to help me achieve the Olympic standard. Since then I have not returned to Finland for training, just for competition.
“I am training on my own using the programme of coach Petteri Pirronen. Today he gave me a few tips from the stands, which helped me,” Yego added.
However, South African John Robert Oosthuizen was unable to make the final as his best effort of 74.36 metres in the first round left him disappointingly in the 16th position in Group B.
Aslo left out of the final is the London 2012 Olympic Champion Keshom Walcott of Trinidad and Tobago, who finished in 19th position overall with a best throw of 78.78 metres.
In other races, 100m silver medalist, Ivory Coast’s [link id=”205″ tax=”post_tag” text=”Murielle Ahoure” target=”_blank”] (22.66) and Nigeria’s [link id=”158″ tax=”post_tag” text=”Blessing Okagbare” target=”_blank”] (22.79) both proceeded comfortably into the women’s 200m semi-finals later this evening.
In the women’s 800m, Malika Akkaoui of Morocco (1:59.63 ), Winny Chebet of Kenya (1:59.58), Halima Hachlaf of Morocco (2:00.04) and Kenya’s Eunice Jepkoech Sum (2:00.49) all advanced to the semi final.
