World Athletics C’ships: Neeraj Chopra qualifies for men’s javelin final with first-attempt 84.85m

Tokyo: Two-time Olympic medallist and defending champion Neeraj Chopra qualified for the final of the men’s Javelin throw event of the World Athletics Championships, achieving the required qualifying mark in his first throw of the qualifying round.

The qualifying mark was set at 84.50m, and Neeraj, on his return to the venue where he made history by winning the Olympic gold medal, comfortably hurled the javelin to a distance of 84.85m in his very first attempt in the Group A qualification to make it to the final.

This marked the fifth consecutive time Chopra needed just one attempt to qualify for the final. The previous four occasions when Chopra made it to the final in the first throw are the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, the 2022 and 2023 World Championships, and the 2024 Paris Olympics.

After Chopra, Germany’s Julian Weber breached the automatic qualification mark in his second attempt. Weber started with an 82.29m throw but bounced back to record the throw of 87.21m, making the direct qualification to the final.

Another Indian in Group A, Sachin Yadav, who began with 80.16m, finished the qualification round with a best throw of 83.67m in his three attempts and remains hopeful to qualify for the final.

Chopra, who won a silver medal in the Paris Olympic Games in 2024, will on Thursday defend the World title he won in Budapest in 2023. The 27-year-old from Haryana created history in Budapest two years ago by becoming India’s first-ever world champion in athletics with a throw of 88.17m. Pakistan’s Arshad Nadeem had secured silver on that occasion with an effort of 87.82m.

However, the cross-border rivalry intensified in Paris last year when Nadeem dethroned Chopra as Olympic champion with a massive throw of 92.97m, while the Indian settled for a silver with the best effort of 89.45m.

Chopra will be aiming for his third medal in the World Championships, having previously clinched a silver in Eugene, USA, three years ago.

Earlier this season, the Indian legend had finally crossed the 90m mark with a national record throw of 90.23m in the Diamond League event in Doha, Qatar. However, that effort currently ranks him third on the world best list, behind Germany’s Julian Weber and Brazil’s Luiz da Silva.

IANS