Trinidad and Tobago’s Keshorn Walcott delivered an exceptional performance to capture gold in the men’s javelin at the World Athletics Championships in Japan.
The 32-year-old produced a season’s best effort of 88.16 metres to lead, with Grenada’s two-time world champion Anderson Peters second with his throw of 87.38m. At the same time, USA’s Curtis Thompson earned the bronze medal with his throw at 86.67m.
Walcott 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.”
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 with a season’s best of 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.
Walcott’s teammate Jereem Richards set a new national record, finishing second in the men’s 400 metres.
Richards added T&T’s second medal of the day when he clocked 43.72 seconds behind Botswana’s Busang Collen Kebinatshipi, who ran a world-leading time of 43.53.
Bayapo Ndori of Botswana took bronze in a season’s best of 44.20.
The Dominican Republic’s Olympic champion, Marileidy Paulino, had to settle for silver after finishing second in the women’s 400 metres in 47.98 seconds, setting a new national record.
But she was no match for the USA’s Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, who ran a championship record 47.78 seconds to win gold.
