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India’s Olympic star Neeraj Chopra was at his best yet again, this time at the Athletics Championship, with a mighty throw of 88.39 metres to automatically qualify for the finals of his event.
Chopra was the first athlete in Group A to try his hand at qualifying, with an automatic qualifying mark of 83.50 metres that would not be of much trouble to him. His massive throw was enough to wrap up his day early as he gets set for the final showdown, taking place on Sunday morning.
If Chopra secures gold at the Athletic Championships, he will become just the first male javelin thrower since Norway’s Andreas Thorkildsen in 2009 to have secured both the Olympics and the World Championship titles at the same time.
And before Thorkildsen, this prestigious honour was held by the mighty Jan Zelezny of the Czech Republic.
Chopra’s 88-plus throw on Friday morning was a metre and a half less than his national record of 89.94 metres. But with an automatic qualifying mark in place, it is not surprise that Chopra did not give his full effort.
Czech Republic’s Jakub Vadlejch was the other thrower to automatically qualify for the final in the first round with a throw of 85.23 metres.
The medal round will be held on Sunday (7:05 am IST).
This is now India's best ever show at the World Athletics Championships with Sreeshankar (long jump), Neeraj Chopra (javelin), Rohit Yadav (javelin), Eldhose Paul (triple jump), Avinash Sable (steeplechase) and Annu Rani (javelin) reaching the finals in their respective events. Sree missed in the final, now up to the rest five for medals as eyes are hooked on golden boy Neeraj, who is a realistic hope for bringing India a glory again.
Chopra's qualification round lasted a few minutes as he did not need to take the remaining two throws after breaching the automatic qualification mark on his first attempt. A competitor gets three throws in the qualification round.
Another Indian in the fray, Rohit Yadav also made it to the finals after finishing sixth in Group B qualification round, and 11th overall, with his first round throw of 80.42m.
His second throw was a foul and he managed a modest 77.32m in his last attempt. The 21-year-old Indian had recorded a season's and personal best of 82.54m while winning a silver at the National Inter-State Championships last month.
Those who cleared 83.50m or the 12 best performers across two qualification round groups qualified for the final to be held on Sunday (7:05am IST).
Chopra, who has a personal best of 89.94m, had competed in the 2017 London World Championships with the hope of at least making it to the finals but managed only 82.26m to fall short of the automatic qualification mark of 83m.
He had missed the 2019 World Championships in Doha as he was recovering from an elbow surgery.
Eldhose, 1st Indian to qualify for triple jump
In other events, Eldhose Paul became the first Indian to qualify for the triple jump final at the World Championships with an effort of 16.68m. He finished sixth in Group A qualification round and 12th overall to make the cut for Sunday's final (6:50am IST).
The 25-year-old Paul, who reached here just a few days ago due to visa issues, has a season's and personal best of 16.99m which he had recorded while winning gold in the Federation Cup in April.
The two other Indians, Praveen Chithravel and Abdulla Aboobacker, disappointed as they failed to make it to the finals after below-par jumps of 16.49m and 16.45m respectively. Chitravel finished eighth in Group A, and 17th overall, while Aboobacker ended at 10th in Group B, and 19th overall.
Those who cleared 17.05m or the 12 best performers across two qualification round groups qualify for the finals.
Chitravel had produced the third longest-ever jump by an Indian with a stunning effort of 17.18m to clinch gold at the National Inter-State Senior Athletics Championships in Chennai last month. Aboobacker, who had won silver in the Chennai meet, has a season's and personal best of 17.19m.
In the men's javelin throw event, Tokyo Olympics silver medallist Jakub Vadlejch of Czech Republic also qualified for the finals with a first round throw of 85.23m. He was the second automatic qualifier from Group A, along with Chopra, and fourth overall.
Chopra has beaten Peters twice this season while the 24-year-old Grenadian prevailed over the Indian once, at the Diamond League Meeting in Stockholm on June 30 -- in their three meetings before the World Championships.
World leader Peters has thrown 90m-plus thrice with the best being a monster throw of 93.07m while winning gold at the year's first Diamond League Meeting in Doha in May. After winning the gold in Stockholm, he had said he was not fully fit due to a back problem.
Germany's Julian Weber was the fourth athlete to breach the automatic qualification mark, also with his opening throw of 87.28m. He was third overall. Four competitors across the two groups breached the automatic qualification mark.
Pakistan's Arshad Nadeem also made it to the finals after finishing fourth in Group B, and ninth overall, with a best throw of 81.71m.
If Chopra wins in the final on Sunday, he will become only the third male javelin thrower to follow Olympic success with World Championship gold after Norway's Andreas Thorkildsen (2008-09) and world record holder Jan Zelezny of Czech Republic in 2000-01 and 1992-93.
Chopra had become the first Indian track and field athlete to bag an Olympic gold last year and is also the reigning Commonwealth Games and Asian Games champion.
He has been in tremendous form this season having broken his own national record twice. He did that first in his season-opening outing at the Paavo Nurmi Games at Turku in Finland with a throw of 89.30m on June 14.
He bettered his national mark again during the prestigious Diamond League Meeting in Stockholm on June 30 with an effort of 89.94m, just 6cm shy of 90m, the gold standard of the javelin world.
In between, he won gold at the Kuortane Games in Finland in a world-class field with a throw of 86.79m.
Chopra's best coming into this season was the 88.07m he had produced at the Indian Grand Prix series in Patiala in March 2021.
Trinidad and Tobago's 2012 Olympics gold winner Keshorn Walcott failed to make it to the finals, finishing eighth in Group A, and 16th overall, with a best throw of 78.87m.
