TOKYO – More than 13 years after winning his first major title, Trinidad and Tobago’s Keshorn Walcott delivered another exceptional performance to capture gold in the men’s javelin at the World Athletics Championships in Japan on Thursday.
The 32-year-old produced a season’s best effort of 88.16 metres to lead a 1-2 for the Caribbean, with Grenada’s two-time world champion Anderson Peters second with his throw of 87.38m, while USA’s Curtis Thompson earned a surprise bronze medal with his effort measured at 86.67m.
World leader Julian Weber placed fifth (86.11m), defending champion Neeraj Chopra was eighth (84.03m) and Olympic champion Arshad Nadeem was 10th (82.75m).
Walcott, who shocked the world to win gold at the 2012 Olympics, took the lead in round two with 87.83m, then threw farther in round four with 88.16m.
“It feels great, it feels great, it’s been a long 13 years,” said Walcott, before opening up on his love-hate relationship with the sport.
“It’s painful, but it’s the best thing that ever happened to me. It’s like the most toxic relationship ever. It just keeps pulling you back.”
Meanwhile, the 27-year-old Peters added a silver medal to the golds he won at the 2019 and 2022 World Championships.
“My qualifying mark of 89.00m could have given me the gold, but I will try not to dwell too much on it.
“I think I was a bit too choppy on the run up today,” Peters said.
In what proved to be a good day for Caribbean athletes, Dominica’s Olympic champion Thea LaFond claimed silver in the women’s triple jump, while Walcott’s teammate Jereem Richards set a new national record on his way to finishing second in the men’s 400 metres.
LaFond leapt a season’s best 14.89 metres to finish just behind Cuba’s Leyanis Perez Hernandez, a four-time world champion, who copped gold in a world-leading jump of 14.94 metres.
Yulimar Rojas of Venezuela (14.74m) placed third.
Richards added T&T’s second medal of the day when he clocked 43.72 seconds to cop silver behind Botswana’s Busang Collen Kebinatshipi, who ran a world-leading time of 43.53 to become his country’s first-ever male world champion.
Bayapo Ndori of Botswana came through to take bronze in a season’s best of 44.20, after the dogged challenge of Jamaica’s 33-year-old Rusheen McDonald faded in the closing stages, with a resulting fourth-place finish in 44.28 seconds.
The Dominican Republic’s Olympic champion, Marileidy Paulino, was forced to settle for silver this time around after finishing second in the women’s 400 metres.
Paulino stormed home in 47.98 seconds, setting a new national record in the process, but was no match for the USA’s Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, who ran a championship record 47.78 seconds to win gold.
Jamaica’s Nickisha Pryce was well off the pace and finished eighth in the final in 49.97 seconds.
In other results, Jamaica’s Bryan Levell cruised into the final of the men’s 200 metres by easily winning Heat 2 in 19.78 seconds.
However, his compatriots Andre Kerr, who placed fifth in Heat 3 in a personal best time of 20.08 seconds and Christopher Taylor, who was fifth in Heat 1, also in a personal best time of 20.21 seconds, failed to advance.
In the women's event, Shericka Jackson of Jamaica won Heat 1 in 21.99 seconds to book her spot in the 200 metres final, but her compatriot Ashanti Moore barely missed out on a place after finishing third in Heat 2 in 22.51 seconds.
CMC
