Keshorn Walcott: Trinbagonian Javelin ace wins nationals to secure spot in 2024 Paris Olympics

Keshorn Walcott, Trinbagonian athlete, qualifies for the Paris Olympics and confirms his spot in the men’s Javelin event by the virtue of his world record and rankings, although falling short of achieving this on the basis of qualifying standards.

Walcott won the National men’s javelin title for the eighth time with an impressive throw of 85.22 metres at his fifth attempt. His other attempts helped him score 84.42 m, 83.85 m, 83.05 m, 83.94 m and 83.22 metres. But even after this win he couldn’t qualify for the Olympics as the qualifying standards for the Paris Olympics 2024 is 85.50 metres.

Keshorn Walcott, also known as “Keshie” is a Trinbagonian track and field athlete. He competes in the event of javelin throw and has won the 2012 Olympic. Apart from the Olympics, he began the year 2012 winning the CARIFTA Juniors. Later that year, he broke the Trinidad’s national Javelin record of 78.06 metres by Kurt Thompson. In the IAAF International Centennials Meet in Havana, 2012, he broke all his previous records and gave his best throw of 80.11 metres.

In July 2015, the 30 years old athlete created a national record in javelin throw with a lifetime best throw of 90.6 metres. He also secured the bronze medal in the Olympics 2016.

Although he couldn’t qualify for the finals, in the 2020 Games, he did confirm his spot for the 2024 Paris Olympics based on his world ranking and records owning a score of 1,266. He stands sixth at the world ranking in the javelin throw event.

On this, the athlete expressed his gratitude on a social media post. He said that the journey of qualifying the Paris Olympics has been my most challenging for him, but he still feels proud and thankful to declare that he secured a spot in the Games. He also added that after being significantly injured the previous year, he felt lost and was not sure how to restart the journey for the Olympic qualifications.

He got injured during a warmup session at the World Athletics Championships 2023, in Hungary in the month of August as he ruptured his Achilles tendon and was alter ruled out of the competition. After getting the surgery done, it took him about ten months to recover and return to the competitive phase.