media_artricles :: 2017

Walcott, Solomon get bronze

T&T's Keshorn Walcott and Jarrin Solomon bagged bronze medals at the 55th Paavo Nurmi Games, an IAAF World Challenge Meeting in Turku, Finland, yesterday.

Walcott, the 2012 Olympic champion, tossed the spear 86.48 metres to place third in the men's javelin at a meeting staged on Paavo Nurmi's 120th birthday at the Turku Sports Park stadium which was renamed in 1997 to honour the nine-time Olympic champion on the 100th anniversary of his birth in the same city.

His attempt just fell short of his season's best 86.61m which he achieved at the Golden Gala IAAF Diamond League meet in Rome, Italy on Thursday. It was, however, better than his 84.16m-effort which he measured in his season opener in Vantaa, Finland, last month.

Winning was Olympic champion German Thomas Rohler with 88.26m. Rohler, who reached 90 metres for the first time in Turku last year—twice winning—with an end-of-season world lead of 91.28m, also topped Sunday's Jena competition with at throw of 83.64m.

Another German Johannes Vetter finished ahead of T&T star javelin thrower, who is also the 2016 Olympic bronze medallist, with a 87.88m throw to the take the silver. Both German athletes have produced the best throws so far this season, Rohler 93.90 and Vetter 89.68.

Solomon, the 2012 Olympic 4x400m bronze medallist, clocked 46.51 seconds to follow Rabah Yousif of Great Britain (45.81) and Isaac Makwala of Botswana (46.27) to the line, respectively. Earlier this month, Solomon at the Nordic Challenge, in Denmark crossed in 46.39 in the same event to claim silver.

Mikel Thomas also competed at the Finland meet and placed sixth in the men's 110m hurdles final in 13.77 after qualifying with the third fastest time of 13.67 in the first of two heats. He clocked a slower time to his season's best 13.33 which he ran at the Praha Josef Odlozil Memorial in Czech Republic, last month.

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