Keshorn Walcott wins Olympic javelin gold

(AP) Keshorn Walcott is taking the Olympic javelin title to tiny Trinidad and Tobago. Europe will have to wait until 2016 to get it back.

Walcott, the world junior champion, set a national record with a throw of 277 feet, 6 inches on his second attempt Saturday, and nobody improved on the mark for the remainder of the final in the London Games.

Trinidad and Tobago's first Olympic gold in a field event halted Europe's dominance of javelin at the games. American Cyrus Young is the only other person from outside Europe to win the event, and he accomplished the feat in 1952.

"It hasn't caught up with me yet. I can't really believe what I've done," the 19-year-old Walcott said. "Making the semifinal was great for me. Then coming to the end of the competition, I was realizing I'm still in front."

Walcott was a bowler in cricket when he was a kid, and then he found out "the action is kind of similar to javelin."

It's a new approach to the discipline which has its traditional heartland in Finland. Antti Ruuskanen, who took third behind Oleksandr Pyantnytsya of Ukraine, was asked what it feels like to lose to someone from Trinidad and Tobago in the javelin.

"It never feels so good. But it's good for javelin," the Finn said.

Now Walcott is hoping his victory drums up interest in the sport in his cricket-loving nation.

"It wasn't the most popular event in Trinidad and Tobago. Hopefully now it will be known more," Walcott said.