After earning the necessary qualifying mark in his first throw of the qualifying round, two-time Olympic medallist and reigning champion Neeraj Chopra advanced to the World Athletics Championships final in the men’s javelin throw event.
On his return to the location where he made history by winning the Olympic gold medal, Neeraj easily threw the javelin to a distance of 84.85m on his first try in the Group A qualifier to advance to the final. The qualifying mark was set at 84.50m.
Chopra qualified for the final with just one try for the fifth time in a row. Chopra has already advanced to the final in the first throw at the Tokyo Olympics in 2020, the World Championships in 2022 and 2023, and the Olympics in Paris in 2024.
Julian Weber of Germany broke the automatic qualification threshold on his second try after Chopra. Weber qualified directly for the final with a throw of 87.21 meters after starting with an 82.29-meter toss.
With a starting throw of 80.16 meters, Sachin Yadav, another Indian in Group A, finished the qualification round with a best throw of 83.67 meters in his three attempts and is still in the running to make it to the final.
Chopra, who took home a silver medal at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, will defend his 2023 World championship on Thursday. Two years ago in Budapest, the 27-year-old Haryana native made history by becoming India’s first-ever world champion in athletics with a throw of 88.17 meters. That time, Arshad Nadeem of Pakistan had won silver with an 87.82-meter effort.
But last year in Paris, the competition between the two countries grew more intense when Nadeem defeated Chopra as the Olympic champion with a huge throw of 92.97 meters, while the Indian only managed a silver medal with the greatest attempt of 89.45 meters.
Chopra, who won a silver medal in Eugene, USA, three years ago, will be looking for his third medal at the World Championships.
With a national record throw of 90.23 meters at the Diamond League event in Doha, Qatar, earlier this season, the Indian legend had finally surpassed the 90-meter mark. He is currently ranked third on the global best list, nevertheless, after Luiz da Silva of Brazil and Julian Weber of Germany, thanks to his effort.
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