Kenyan who learnt how to throw javelin by watching YouTube won Olympic Silver medal

He was beaten to the gold medal in dramatic fashion after he got injured.

Belmont Lay | August 25, 2016, 01:16 AM

Julius Yego, the 27-year-old Kenyan who learnt how to throw the javelin by watching YouTube videos, eventually won a Olympic Silver medal in Rio 2016, two days before the competition ended.

Here's a news reel of his historic Olympic Silver win:

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Germany's Thomas Rohler, 24, snatched the javelin gold in dramatic fashion after Yego retired injured having only managed one throw and had two attempts left.

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Yego led with a season's-best 88.24m, but fell on the follow-through in round four and sat out the rest of the contest as he could only watch from the sideline as he lost his lead.

The 24-year-old German threw 90.30m in round five to win Germany's first javelin gold since the 1972 Munich Olympics.

Yego is the reigning World Javelin Champion, a crown that he took in 2015 when the tournament was held in Beijing, China.

Yego also won the Commonwealth Javelin title in 2014 in Glasgow, Scotland.

Although injured, Yego subsequently returned to the podium to collect his Olympic Silver medal.

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His story about how he learnt to throw the javelin in native Kenya by watching YouTube videos as a teenager surprised millions of people around the world.

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Related article:

Kenyan in Olympics learnt to throw javelin by watching YouTube tutorials: Rio 2016 moments

 

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