Neeraj Chopra comfortably steps into the final of the World Athletics Championships in Eugene, as he easily crossed the automatic qualification mark set at 83.50m.
Chopra, the reigning Olympic champion, commenced the men’s javelin throw Group A qualification round with a colossal 88.39m to qualify for the final of his very first effort. This is Chopra’s third-best throw of all time.
“It was a good start. I am also happy for Jakub [Vadlejch]. I hope my friends can also make it today. I’ll give my 100% in the final. We’ll see,” Chopra said.
“Every day is different. I’ll just give my best. We don’t know who can throw far on any given day. There are so many throwers in good shape now. Five-six throwers have thrown PBs this year. They are all in excellent shape. There is a little bit of zigzag in my run-up. I shook a little bit, but it was a good throw,” Chopra added notifying World Athletics.
Chopra, Peters, Weber and Vadlejch were the only throwers to book automatic qualification for the final round.
This is the first time Chopra has made the World Championship final. He flunked to get past the qualification round in 2017 and omitted the 2019 version in Doha as he was recovering from an elbow surgery.
Chopra, has enjoyed a superb run of form since his comeback to competition. He began his season with a marvellous 89.30m at the Paavo Nurmi Games on 14th of June, followed it up with a 86.89m between the slippery conditions at the Kuortane Games on 18th of June and followed it up with a huge personal best of 89.94m at the Stockholm Diamond League event 12 days later.
Chopra has been progressing closer to the coveted 90m mark as 2 of his main competitors – Peters (93.07m) and Vadlejch (90.88m) – have already surpassed the mark this year.
Chopra will return for the men’s javelin final on Sunday at 7:05 AM IST.
