Neeraj Chopra, the defending Olympic champion, made a strong start to his World Athletics Championships campaign on Friday by qualifying for the men’s javelin throw final with a season-best throw of 88.77 metres in Group A Qualifier.
For a spot in the 12-man final, which is set for Sunday, a total of 37 javelin throwers, separated into two groups, A and B, are participating in the qualifiers. 83.00m is the automatic qualifying mark.
As the top-ranked javelin thrower in the world going into the competitions, the 25-year-old Indian athlete had his sights set on the elusive gold medal for both himself and his nation.
At the 2022 world championships in Oregon, Chopra came within a whisker of becoming the first Indian world champion in any athletics discipline, but he ultimately had to settle for a silver medal after coming in second to Anderson Peters of Grenada.
A second Indian acting DP Manu, who took home the silver medal at the Asian Athletics Championships in Bangkok this year, began with a throw of 78.10m, but he improved on it on his second try to move up to third place in Group A with an 81.31m throw.
-IANS
