Egypt's Ihab Abdelrahman (Photo: Al-Ahram)
Ihab Abdel-Rahman renewed Egypt's hope for a first medal ever in the athletics World Championships after he reached the javelin final in Beijing.
He finished fifth in group B of the men's qualification with a 82.85 metre throw, 3.29 metres behind first-placed Andreas Hofmann of Germany. Ryohei Arai of Japan made the best throw in the championship with 84.66 metres to lead group A.
Although the 26-year-old Egyptian athlete didn't make the qualifying 83.00 metres, he was ranked eighth in the two groups and reached the final among the best twelve.
The Ahly star needs to return to his peak in the finals on Wednesday in an attempt to break his personal best record of 89.21 metres that he threw in Shanghai on 18 May 2014.
The best javelin throw of all time was made by Jan Zeleny of the Czech Republic in Jena (Abbe Sport Ground) on 25 May 1996 with 98.48 metres. Zeleny's record is followed by Finland's Aki Parviainen [93.09] in 1999 and Russia's Sergey Makarov [92.61] in 2002.
Abdel-Rahman is Egypt's last hope for a first ever athletics world championship medal this year after his other two fellow Egyptians failed to snatch one.
Hammer thrower Mostafa Elgamal finished seventh with a 76.81 metre throw on Sunday while Mostafa Amr missed out on the shot put final during his first participation in the World Championships finishing 18th among 28 athletes on Sunday.
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