Second placed Ihab Abdelrahman El Sayed of Egypt celebrates with a national flag after winning silver at the men's javelin throw final during the 15th IAAF World Championships at the National Stadium in Beijing. (Photo: REUTERS)
Ihab Abdel-Rahman has become the first ever Egyptian athletics world medalist after snatching the silver in Javelin throw final of the 2015 IAAF World Championships in Beijing.
The 26-year-old wrote his name in the athletics hall of fame with a throw of 88.99 metres, 3.73 metres less than gold medalist Julius Yego of Kenya. Bronze won by Tero Pitkamaki of Finland with a 87.64m throw.
Although ِِAbdel-Rahman could not better his personal best of 89.21 metres in Shanghai on 18 May 2014, his effort today is the fifth furthest anyone has thrown in 2015.
Kenya's Julius Yego celebrates after taking the lead in the men's javelin final during the World Athletics Championships at the Bird's Nest stadium in Beijing, Wednesday.(Photo: AP)
Julius Yego broke not only his personal best of 91.93 metres but also threw the third-furthest throw of all time.
The world record is held by Jan Zeleny of the Czech Republic, he set it in Jena on 25 May 1996 with a throw of 98.48 metres. Zeleny's record is followed by Finland's Aki Parviainen throw of 93.09 metres in 1999.
The former third best throw was by Russia's Sergey Makarov with 92.61 metres in 2002. Makarov's is now the fourth best throw after Yego's.
Egypt's Ihab Abdelrahman El Sayed competes in the men's javelin throw final at the World Athletics Championships at the Bird's Nest stadium in Beijing. (Photo: AP)
Abdel-Rahman qualified for the final after finishing eighth in the semi-final with a 82.85 metre throw, 3.29 metres behind first-placed Andreas Hofmann of Germany.
He is the third of Egypt's three-member delegation to Beijing as hammer thrower Mostafa Elgamal finished seventh with a 76.81 metre throw on Sunday, hours after Mostafa Amr missed out on the shot put final during his World Championships, finishing 18th out of 28 athletes.
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