World Athletics Championships: Neeraj Chopra qualifies, enters final

Budapest: Indian ace javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra began his World Athletics Championships campaign in style as he qualified for men’s javelin throw final with a season best of 88.77m in his very first throw in Group A Qualifier, here on Friday.

A total of 37 javelin throwers, divided into two groups – A and B – are competing in the qualifiers for a place in the 12-man final, scheduled on Sunday. The automatic qualifying mark is 83.00m.

The 25-year-old Indian entered the championships as the world’s top-ranked javelin thrower and eyeing that elusive gold medal both for his personal medals cabinet and the country.

Chopra came close to becoming the first Indian world champion in any athletics discipline at the 2022 world championships in Oregon but eventually had to settle for a silver medal after finishing behind Grenada’s Anderson Peters.

Another Indian in action DP Manu, who won the silver at the Asian Athletics Championships this year in Bangkok, started off with 78.10m and made a bettered in his second attempt to jump to third in Group A with an 81.31m throw.