Julius Yego Discloses Eliud Kipchoge and Vivian Cheruiyot’s Secret Hand in His Career Revival When He Was Almost Quitting

Kenyan’s javelin great Julius Yego is thankful in part to veterans Eliud Kipchoge and Vivian Cheruiyot as they played a major role in his career.

Yego has been competing since 2010 and the following year he won the African Games title and while he has enjoyed great success, he has also encountered several challenges, some that nearly forced him to quit the sport.

The 36-year-old remains the last Kenyan athlete to win a gold medal in a field event having claimed the javelin title at the 2015 World Championships and the following year, he bagged Olympics silver at the Rio Games.

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However, it was during that Olympics in Brazil nine years ago that misfortune struck as he sustained an injury during his second throw and the setback has bothered him since.

The niggling injuries have hampered Yego and made it very hard for him to maintain a high level of performances but to his credit, he has remained resolute and is now headed to his seventh World Championships in Tokyo in September.

“Sometimes it can be very tricky and difficult, especially if you are not strong mentally, you can lose it. It was really tough for me especially when I felt like the injury was not going away,” Yego told Telecomasia.net.

“At some point, I thought of quitting. It was taking a toll on me mentally and I thought maybe, this was my time to exit the sport. I kept coming back and recurring the injury and this made me really worked up. It wasn’t an easy time for me.”

Yego credits Kipchoge and Cheruiyot for encouraging him at his lowest when he was contemplating quitting as the injuries took their toll on him.

“I sought for inspiration from people who have been in the sport for long, the likes of Vivian Cheruiyot and Eliud Kipchoge. They have had consistent careers also filled with challenges but they remained consistent,” he added.

“Eliud particularly was one of those people I could talk to a lot and he told me not to give up. I was competing on returning and not doing well and it bothered me a lot. But he told me, I can never win all competitions. The consistency to compete at the highest level is all that matters.

“He told me to take it easy on myself, keep discipline and train well. That piece of advice really helped me a lot and shifted my mindset and I focused more on recovering and getting back to competing.”

Yego has since returned and had an impressive performance at the 2024 Paris Olympics when he managed a throw of 87.72m to finish fifth which earned him his ticket to this year’s World Championships.