The wreckage of Julius Yego’s Toyota Prado at Eldoret Police Station. PHOTO | JARED NYATAYA
World javelin champion Julius Yego left an Eldoret hospital Monday where he was rushed on Sunday night after being involved in a high-impact accident that wrote off his week-old sports utility vehicle (SUV).
Yego was driving his brand-new Toyota Prado on Kapsoya Road at around 10pm when the accident happened near Equity Bank. He was alone in the vehicle.
“God is living and great! I’m OK my people. Can’t believe am alive. @mungu yupo! I’m in stable condition,” Yego posted on Facebook.
The wreckage of the SUV was towed to the Eldoret Central Police Station. The police on night duty stopped journalists from taking photos of the vehicle.
Yego was rushed to Mediheal Hospital in Eldoret Town where he stayed the whole night for tests and observation.
When journalists visited the hospital on Sunday night, Yego was undergoing tests. Hospital officials declined to talk to journalists.
Journalists were not allowed to talk to the world javelin champion, with the hospital’s management saying he was under close observation and needed overnight rest.
“He is okay only that doctors advised he should relax till morning,” world 1,500 metres champion Asbel Kiprop, who was among the first people at the scene of the accident, said.
Kiprop himself was involved in a similar accident on the Kabarnet-Iten road two years ago in his BMW X6 that was written off.
Kiprop said last week, another athlete, Andrew Rotich, also survived a road accident.
“What a stupid week,” Kiprop, also the 2008 Olympic 1,500m champion, posted.
“Two days after Andrew Rotich got involved in an accident, Julius Yego tonight again got involved. God protect us. We thank God they are safe,” Kiprop said in his post.
Yego, 27, who won the world javelin title in Beijing in 2015, suffered an injury during the final at the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro in August. But despite the injury that forced him to miss successive throws, he still bagged a silver medal, Kenya’s first Olympic field events medal.
Best throw
In Beijing, the two-time Africa champion broke the Africa and Commonwealth record with a massive throw of 92.72 metres, which was the best throw in the world since 2006.
On Saturday, Yego, who also won gold at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, had told the Daily Nation that he was just beginning his build-up to the 2017 season in which he hopes to defend his world title at the IAAF World Championships that will be held at the iconic Olympic Stadium in Stratford, London.
It is in the same stadium that Yego became the first Kenyan to reach an Olympic field events final during the 2012 London Games.
Yego rapidly developed in the sport under legendary Finnish coach Petteri Piironen, who worked on his technique at the Kuortane Olympic Training Centre in Finland where he was on a scholarship.
The Kenya Police officer has concentrated his training between his Kapsabet home and Eldoret, where he lives with his wife Sincy and son Jarvis.
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