CHENNAI: As the World Athletics Championships entered the fifth day, all eyes were on javelin throw qualification event back home in India. One man that has captured the imagination of crores of fans back home and made javelin a household event was throwing to qualify for the final on Thursday. Tokyo is his favourite stage where he won gold at the Olympics in 2021.
Defending champion Neeraj Chopra needed just one throw to cross the qualification mark of 84.50m with a throw of 84.85m. He looked comfortable while crossing the mark and did not attempt any other throw. Neeraj has a personal best of 90.23m earlier this year. German Julian Weber, who was clubbed alongside Neeraj in Group A, needed more than one attempt to qualify. His second throw touched 87.21m and qualified as the group leader. He was followed by Dawid Wegner of Poland who threw a distance of 85.67m in the same group.
There was another sub-plot in the javelin — India versus Pakistan. But it took Olympic champion from Pakistan, Arshad Nadeem, to sum up all his energy for the third and final throw to cross the qualification mark with a throw of 85.28m in Group B. However, Anderson Peters has had the best qualification throw overall when he managed to clear a distance of 89.53m. Julius Yego of Kenya managed 85.96 in the same Group B.
Sachin Yadav, who was in Neeraj’s group, had a good outing throwing the javelin to a distance of 83.67m and qualified for the final as the top 12 throwers. During qualifications, a thrower gets three chances to qualify and if someone manages the mark in the first attempt the thrower usually do not take part further. So qualifications are not indication of an athletes' form in javelin. However, with a very tight season this time, Neeraj has been pushed to his limits during most of the competitions he participated this year. He has been working on his timing as well and it needs to be seen how he performs on the day of the final on Thursday.
The final 12: Anderson Peters, Julian Weber, Julius Yego, Dawid Wegner, Arshad Nadeem, Neeraj Chopra, Curtis Thomson, Jakub Vadlejch, Keshorn Walcott, Sachin Yadav, Cameron McEntyre, Rumesh Tharanga Pathirage