Neeraj Chopra remains in the hunt to become only the third male javelin thrower in history to defend a World Championships gold after qualifying for the final in Tokyo on Wednesday. The defending champion, who won in Budapest in 2023 and entered with a wild card, secured his spot with a first-attempt throw of 84.85m.
Neeraj, placed in Group A of the qualifiers, needed to cross the 84.5m mark for automatic qualification, and the 27-year-old did with his first throw, just like he did at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 at the very same stadium.
Recently-crowned Diamond League champion, Julian Weber of Germany, was up next, but failed to get past the qualification mark after his first attempt throw of 82.29m. He made it through on his second try after hurling an 87.21m throw.
Other athletes in the 19-man Group A included 2012 Olympic champion Keshorn Walcott of Trinidad and Tobago, Tokyo Olympics silver medallist Jakub Vadlejch of the Czech Republic, as well as Brazil’s Luiz da Silva, while the 18-strong Group B comprises reigning Olympic champion Arshad Nadeem, Anderson Peters and rising Sri Lankan Rumesh Tharanga Pathirage among others. The men’s javelin also has three other Indian athletes – Sachin Yadav, Yashvir Singh and Rohit Yadav – the biggest number among participating nations in the event.
In the previous edition of the World Athletics Championships, Neeraj threw 88.17m to finish top of the podium. He became the first Asian to win a gold medal in the javelin throw event at the Championships. Nadeem (87.22m) finished second, while Vadlejch (86.67m) bagged the bronze medal. However, defending his crown in Tokyo will unlikely be straightforward for the Indian, despite it being the same arena where he scripted history with an Olympic gold in 2021.
Earlier this year, he breached the 90m barrier with a 90.23m throw at the Doha Diamond League, but has also mixed in a few modest distances along the way. He had failed to breach the 85m in two competitions, and narrowly crossed the mark on two other occasions, with his second-best throw in the calendar year being 88.16m.
Weber will likely be the stronger contender in the final, having won the Diamond League title last month, and has a season-best throw of 91.51m. In fact, in the Diamond League Final, Neeraj could only manage an 85.01m throw to finish second.
The field will also likely have Nadeem, given that he breaches the qualification mark in Group B in Tokyo, but the Pakistani has participated in just one event in the current season. He won gold with a throw of 86.40m at the Asian Championships in South Korea in May, and that effort booked his place in the global showpiece. He then underwent calf muscle surgery in England in July.
