Keshorn Walcott throws season-best 89.12m to claim silver in Finland

Trinidad and Tobago’s Olympic-bound Keshorn Walcott delivered a season-best throw of 89.12 metres to capture silver in the men’s javelin event at the Kuortane Games Athletics Meet in Kuortane, Finland on Saturday.

Walcott achieved the distance on his second throw. He fouled his third and opted out of his remaining three throws.

Topping the field was 2017 World Championships gold medallist German Johannes Veter, who produced a mammoth effort of 93.59 metres. India’s Neeraj Chopra was third with a distance of 86.79 metres.

Walcott wiped away his previous 2021 best throw of 82.84 metres, which was achieved in another runner-up performance at the Paavo Nurmi Games in Finland two weeks ago.

Since his return to competition, the 28-year old bagged bronze (82.75 metres) in Czech Republic on May 19 and then silver (77.78 metres) at the Wanda Diamond League in Gateshead, England four days later.

In a recent interview with Walcott, the Toco-born athlete said he had observed some technical mistakes with his recent performances on the European circuit. These distances however, were achieved without his coach Ismael Lopez Mastrapa at his side.

Two weeks ago, Mastrapa joined up with Walcott in Portugal and the pair used this time to work on these shortfalls. Heading into Saturday’s competition, Walcott did say he would have bettered his previous distances owing to Mastrapa’s guidance over the past 14 days.

The two-time Olympic medallist returns to action on Tuesday at the Spitzen Leichtathletik in Lucerne, Switzerland and climaxes his pre-Olympic competition on July 13 at the London leg of the Diamond League.