Neeraj Chopra India’s javelin thrower kept India’s hope alive of winning an elusive Olympic medal from track and field events by directly qualifying in the finals. India’s javelin thrower made an excellent throw of 85.65m which made him the top of the Group A contest, which was held on Wednesday.
Neeraj Chopra who is making a debut in Olympics for India, the 23 years old took just a few seconds to make it to the final round. The finals of the javelin throw will be held on Saturday. He sent the spear well past the qualifying mark of 83.50m in the first attempt itself.
Neeraj Chopra’s performance in the qualification round will go down in history as one of the best performances by an Indian in the Olympics India’s javelin thrower surpassed the Johannes Vetter of Germany, who is the gold medal favorite and also the 2017 world champion.
Johannes Vetter earlier stated that India’s Neeraj Chopra will find it tough to beat him in the Olympics. He found himself struggling in the first two throws before crossing the qualification mark in the third and final throw. H sent the spear to a distance of 85.64m.
The 28-year-old German, who came to the Olympics after having sent the spear over 90m-plus mark seven times consecutively between April and June, found himself almost on the verge of not qualifying in the first two throws. He was in the seventh position after the end of the first two throws, but eventually for the final in the second round.
The qualification for the javelin throws final is based on two criteria that touch the 83.50 mark or the top 12 best performers in the qualification round. The javelin finals will be held on Saturday.
Neeraj Chopra is the farmer’s son born in Chandra village near Panipat. He first took up athletics to shed fled in his body. He left the javelin arena just after his first throw itself, having qualified to the final very early.
The Indian athletes contingent, including Athletics Federation of India (AFI) president Adele Sumrajwalla and Klaus Bartonietz, the biomechanics expert in charge of Chopra, were cheering from tha almost empty stands.
This was India’s Neeraj Chopra’s seventh-best throw and his third-best of the season 2021. The reigning Asian Games and Commonwealth Games gold medallist had been short of preparations going into this Olympics. He had only played three international events before this among which one was of top class—Kuortane Games where Johannes Vetter won the gold medal and India’s Neeraj Chopra finished third.
The other Indian taking part in the javelin throw in this Olympics is Shivpal Singh. Canva is in Group B, she will try to qualify for the final when the Group B qualification round which will happen later in the day.
