Neeraj Chopra’s massive 88.39m throw to qualify for maiden World Athletics Championships final

Olympic champion Neeraj Chopra will be competing in the javelin event of the World Athletics Championships final in Eugene, Oregon on Sunday (July 24).

Tokyo Olympics Neeraj Chopra made short work of qualifying for his maiden World Athletics Championships final at Eugene, Oregon, on Friday (July 22). Indian javelin star needed just one throw, a massive one at that, to book his place in Sunday’s javelin final.

Neeraj Chopra was the first athlete to come out and get the javelin qualification underway. He was part of Group A with the automatic qualification mark set at 83.5m. In an incredible display of strength, Neeraj Chopra flung the javelin to a distance of 88.39m to breeze through to his maiden World Championships final, where he will be gunning to become just the 2nd Indian to win a medal after Anju Bobby George.

Neeraj’s attempt was just short of his season’s best of 89.94m which he achieved at the Diamond League event in Stockholm earlier this month. Those who clear 83.50m or 12 best performers across two qualification round groups qualify for the final.

Defending champion Anderson Peters of Grenada and another Indian, Rohit Yadav will compete in Group B.

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 also missed the 2019 World Championships in Doha as he was recovering from an elbow surgery.