Yego puts Nairobi issues behind to focus on gold

World Javelin champion Julius Yego has put behind the scandals that surrounded his pre-Olympics preparations in Kenya to focus on his charge for the gold at the 31st edition of the Summer Games in Rio.

The Commonwealth and two-time African champion hit the headlines on Sunday when he turned up at Nairobi’s Jomo Kenyatta International Airport only to discover his ticket to Rio was missing.

The incident caused a 40 minute delay to the Kenya Airways flight to Luanda, Angola where the the third batch of Team Kenya connected to the Brazilian capital as fellow athletes staged a boycott in his support.

Officials from Government, National Olympics Committee of Kenya (Nock) and Athletics Kenya scrambled to ensure he was on the plane to end what was an embarrassing bitter standoff.

Speaking to Citizen TV upon arrival in Rio, Yego who has been vocal on social media protesting Nock’s poor organization said he had no enough excuse to fail in his quest to make history as Kenya’s first field event gold medallist.

“We are very tired but finally we have arrived and whatever happened in Nairobi matters no more.

“I’m happy I came with my coach here and we are going to be together to the end of the competition. I want to give my best, we all want to win but I respect my opponents so I won’t conclude anything,” the YouTubeMan declared.

On Friday, Yego protested the plan to have him and his coach Joseph Musonik travel separately with Nock scheduling his travel four days later and his return on the eve of the August 20 men’s Javelin final.

Tickets for men’s 1500m Worlds silver medallist Elijah Manangoi and retired former two-time marathon world champion Catherine Ndereba also had issues.

Yego holds the African record of 92.72m from his monster winning throw at the Beijing Worlds but has struggled to replicate that form this season.

Report written by Jacob Icia