NAIROBI, May 26 (Xinhua) -- Double world men's javelin champion Anderson Peters arrived in Kenya on Monday for this year's Absa Kip Keino Classic, the sixth stop of the 2025 World Athletics Continental Tour Gold Series in the capital city of Nairobi.
The Paris 2024 Olympics bronze medallist will be one of the major attractions for the annual track and field meet as he continues his build-up for the Tokyo 2025 World Championships in September.
"We are still in May. There is a lot of time to tighten up technique and get a bit fitter. No need to rush, I'm just taking it one meet at a time," the Grenadian told the event website upon arrival.
The 27-year-old enjoyed success at the Doha 2019 and Eugene 2022 World Championships and arrived in Nairobi on the back of 85.64m season's best performance at the Doha Wanda Diamond League meeting in Qatar.
Peters will be returning to Kenya for the first time since taking silver at the 2023 Kip Keino Classic.
"I performed well here. Competing against someone like Julius Yego, someone I grew up watching compete on TV, has always pushed me. He was the first African, the first non-European, to win a world title in javelin. That inspired me. He lit a path for people like me," Peters added.
The five-time Carifta Games javelin winner threw 85.72m to finish behind Belgium's Timothy Herman on his last outing in Nairobi.
"It was something I had never seen before. Every single event had people cheering, appreciating the athletes. That's rare. That's powerful," he reflected.
Accompanying him to Nairobi was his coach Paul Philip, who underscored to the event website that their aim is to work towards measured progression in the run-up to Tokoy's World Athletics Championships in September.
"We are not pushing for big throws just yet. Somewhere around 85 to 87 meters is okay for now," Philip said. ■
