Julius Yego facts for kids

Quick facts for kids
Julius Yego

Yego in 2015
Personal information
Nickname(s)	Mr. YouTube
Born	(1989-01-04) January 4, 1989 (age 35) Cheptonon, Rift Valley Province, Kenya (today Nandi County)
Height	175 cm (5 ft 9 in)
Weight	85 kg (187 lb)
Sport
Country	Kenya
Sport	Track and field
Event(s)	Javelin throw
Coached by	Petteri Piironen
Achievements and titles
Personal best(s)	AR, CR 92.72 m (2015)
Medal record Olympic Games Silver 2016 Rio de Janeiro Javelin throw World Championships Gold 2015 Beijing Javelin throw Commonwealth Games Gold 2014 Glasgow Javelin throw Bronze 2022 Birmingham Javelin throw African Games Gold 2011 Maputo Javelin throw Gold 2019 Rabat Javelin throw Silver 2023 Accra Javelin throw African Championships Gold 2012 Porto Novo Javelin throw Gold 2014 Marrakech Javelin throw Gold 2018 Asaba Javelin throw Gold 2022 Port Louis Javelin throw Gold 2024 Douala Javelin throw Bronze 2010 Nairobi Javelin throw

Julius Yego (born 4 January 1989) is a Kenyan track and field athlete who competes in the javelin throw. Nicknamed "Mr. YouTube" because he learned how to throw by watching YouTube videos of javelin athletes, Yego is the African record holder for the event with a personal best of 92.72 m.

He won the javelin title at the All-Africa Games in 2011 and at the African Championships in Athletics in 2012 and 2014; at the 2013 World Championships he placed fourth, losing a medal in the final round. In 2014, he became the first Kenyan to win a Commonwealth Games gold medal in a field event. At the 2015 World Championships he won the gold medal with a throw of 92.72m, becoming the first Kenyan to win a World Championships gold medal in a field event. He won silver at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

Biography

Yego was born in Cheptonon (Soba River) location in Tinderet, Nandi District. He attended high school at Kapsabet Boys High School.

Yego became interested in the javelin throw as a youth and later he watched videos of athletes such as Jan Železný and Andreas Thorkildsen on YouTube to help with his technique and to learn how to train at a gym. He competed in the high school regional championships in 2003. In 2006 he won the national junior title and broke the Kenyan junior record with a throw of 67 metres. More renowned for distance runners, Yego quickly ascended to the top of the Kenyan scene. He won his first national title in the javelin at the age of nineteen in 2008 and defended it in both 2009 and 2010.

He earned his first national call up in 2010 and threw a personal best of 74.51 m to take the bronze medal at the 2010 African Championships in Athletics, which was held in Nairobi. He improved his best to 75.44 m at the Kenyan Commonwealth trials. He travelled to New Delhi for the 2010 Commonwealth Games and ended the competition in seventh place with a best throw of 69.60 m. In 2011 he still did not have a throwing coach, due to the lack of popularity of the event in Kenya. Despite this, he won a fourth straight Kenyan title then went to the 2011 All-Africa Games and became Kenya's first ever champion in the event, throwing a Kenyan national record mark of 78.34 m. This bettered Paul Lagat's fourteen-year-old national record (78.20 m). In respect of this achievement the IAAF (the sport's governing body) gave Yego a six-month scholarship to train alongside elite javelin coaches in Europe, with the aim of preparing him for the 2012 London Olympics.

After two months of training at the IAAF-accredited centre in Kuortane, Finland, Yego returned to Kenya in April 2012 and threw a new record of 79.95 m. This was within the Olympic "B" standard for the event and gained him the prospect of becoming the first Kenyan person to compete in the javelin at the Olympics. He improved the Kenyan record at Finnish Elite Games Series event in Kuortane on 22 July 2012, Finland throwing 81.12 metres During the London 2012 Olympics qualifying round, he broke his own national record by 69 cm, to make it 81.81 m. That throw was enough to send him into the final, where he placed 12th.

At the 2013 World Championships in Moscow Yego placed fourth, improving his Kenyan record by more than three metres to 85.40 m. He was the first Kenyan ever to qualify for a field event final at the World Championships, and was in bronze medal position until Russia's Dmitriy Tarabin passed him on his last throw. Track & Field News ranked Yego fifth in the world that year, the first time he'd been ranked in the top 10.

Yego won the javelin at the 2014 Commonwealth Games, beating the reigning Olympic champion, Keshorn Walcott, with a distance of 83.87 m. Yego was the first Kenyan athlete to win a Commonwealth title in a field event. He won a second gold later that summer at the African Championships, throwing a season best 84.72 m and defeating world leader Ihab Abdelrahman El-Sayed of Egypt.

Yego continued his rise in 2015, winning the Ostrava Golden Spike javelin on 26 May with a new Kenyan record of 86.88 m after his best throw was not flagged as a foul by the judges even though his hand touched the line. On 4 June he improved to 87.71 m at the Golden Gala in Rome, placing second behind Vítězslav Veselý. Three days later, Yego won at the British Grand Prix in Birmingham, overtaking Veselý in the last round with a massive throw of 91.39 m; the throw was originally ruled a narrow sector foul, but after his coach requested a remeasurement of the sector angle, the original sector was found to not have been wide enough and the ruling was overturned. Yego's throw was a new African record, and the best in the world since 2006. On 26 August Yego won the gold medal at 2015 World Championships with a throw of 92.72m. At the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Yego won silver with a throw of 88.24 m, despite only throwing once after picking up a right ankle injury.

International competition record

Year	Competition	Venue	Position	Notes
Representing  Kenya
2010	African Championships	Nairobi, Kenya	3rd	74.51 m
	Commonwealth Games	New Delhi, India	7th	69.60 m
2011	All-Africa Games	Maputo, Mozambique	1st	78.34 m (NR)
2012	African Championships	Porto Novo, Benin	1st	76.68 m
	Olympic Games	London, United Kingdom	12th	77.15 m
2013	World Championships	Moscow, Russia	4th	85.40 m (NR)
2014	Commonwealth Games	Glasgow, United Kingdom	1st	83.87 m
	African Championships	Marrakech, Morocco	1st	84.72 m
2015	World Championships	Beijing, China	1st	92.72 m (AR)
2016	Olympic Games	Rio de Janeiro, Brazil	2nd	88.24 m
2017	World Championships	London, United Kingdom	13th	76.29 m
2018	Commonwealth Games	Gold Coast, Australia	13th (q)	74.55 m
	African Championships	Asaba, Nigeria	1st	77.34 m
2019	African Games	Rabat, Morocco	1st	87.73 m
	World Championships	Doha, Qatar	8th (q)	83.86 m1
2021	Olympic Games	Tokyo, Japan	24th (q)	77.34 m
2022	African Championships	Port Louis, Mauritius	1st	79.62 m
	World Championships	Eugene, United States	14th (q)	79.60 m
	Commonwealth Games	Birmingham, England	3rd	85.70 m
2023	World Championships	Budapest, Hungary	17th (q)	78.42 m
2024	African Games	Accra, Ghana	2nd	81.74 m
	African Championships	Douala, Cameroon	1st	80.24 m
	Olympic Games	Paris, France	5th	87.72 m

¹No mark in the final

Seasonal bests by year

• 2009 – 74.00
• 2010 – 75.44
• 2011 – 78.34
• 2012 – 81.81
• 2013 – 85.40
• 2014 – 84.72
• 2015 – 92.72
• 2016 – 88.24
• 2017 – 87.97
• 2018 – 80.91
• 2019 – 87.73
• 2021 - 77.34
• 2022 - 85.70

Personal life

Yego is married to Sincy Chemutai. They have two sons, Jarvis and Finn.

See also

In Spanish: Julius Yego para niños