Dan Pembroke wins world javelin title No.2 in Kobe

British athlete wins the country’s fifth gold of the World Para Champs in Japan

Dan Pembroke won his second world title and Britain’s fifth gold of the week in Kobe, Japan, when he took the F13 javelin crown.

The reigning Paralympic champion threw 66.96m as he laid down a marker ahead of the Paris Paralympics later this summer.

The world record-holder started confidently as his first mark was 61.89m, but after round one he sat in second behind Ali Pirouj, the Iranian having thrown 62.61m. However, the order was switched around from round two onwards when Pembroke retook the lead with 63.59m and he extended the lead further in round three with 64.79m, with 64.69m soon following.

As Pirouj failed to overhaul the Briton on his final throw, Pembroke knew he would be confirmed as the world champion again, and it fired him up as he threw the furthest of his series with 66.96m.

He said: “This was my season opener, so I knew it would be a bit sketchy, but during the first few sets of throws, I was telling myself ‘Come on, you’ve got more than this’. That last throw I managed to get 66.96m which got the job done, so I was happy to make that gap between first and second even wider which is what we like.

“When you’ve had a long winter of training, you aren’t sure what you are capable of in your first competition, never mind when it is a world final. So, the pressure can get to you, but I felt like I relaxed into it towards the last attempt, so it just proves what is to come. A lot of my throws were going up and up about a metre each time, so by the time Paris comes around and I’ve got a few more competitions under my belt, we’ll be breaching that 70-metre mark again.”

READ MORE: Kobe 2024 coverage

He added: “I’m working with John Trower now, Steve Backley’s former coach, and we’ve been working on a few things and some simple techniques, but I didn’t quite manage them today as I got quite hyped up for my season opener. But we are going to nail it in Paris.”

Gold medals from Brits earlier in the championships have come from Hollie Arnold, Jonathan Broom-Edwards, Sabrina Fortune and Hannah Cockroft.

Full results here. 

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