Paris 2024 Olympics: One and done for Neeraj Chopra in qualification, defending champ storms into javelin throw final

Defending champion Neeraj Chopra stormed into the men’s javelin throw final by outclassing the field in the qualification at the Paris 2024 Olympics on Tuesday.

At the Stade de France, Neeraj produced a monster 89.34m throw on his very first attempt to breach the direct qualification standard of 84m. It was the second-best throw of the reigning world champion’s career.

The 26-year-old has a personal best of 89.94m, which he achieved at the Stockholm Diamond League in 2022. It is also the men’s javelin throw national record in India.

Neeraj Chopra also logged his season’s best in the qualification round in Paris. Before this, he had achieved a mark of 88.36m to finish second at the Doha Diamond League in May.

The men’s javelin throw final is scheduled for August 8 and will take place at the same venue.

Neeraj, who won the gold medal at Tokyo 2020 with an 87.58m throw, is competing in his second Olympics in Paris.

The Indian javelin ace is expected to face stiff competition from Germany’s Julian Weber in the final. Weber achieved the direct qualification standard and recorded 87.76m on his very first attempt. The 29-year-old’s throw bettered Neeraj’s Tokyo Olympics gold medal-winning throw by 18cm.

Two-time world champion Anderson Peters of Grenada also made his mark in the final with a monstrous 88.63m throw on his first attempt.

Jakub Vadljech of Czechia, who had beaten Neeraj by 2cm in the Doha Diamond League earlier this year, also qualified for the final with an 85.63m throw. Vadljech had won the silver medal in Tokyo with 86.67m.

Meanwhile, Arshad Nadeem of Pakistan threw 86.59m on his first attempt to make the Paris 2024 final. Nadeem finished second to Neeraj at the 2023 World Championships and is the reigning Commonwealth Games champion.

India’s Kishore Jena, however, failed to qualify for the final. Slotted in Group A earlier in the day, he recorded a best throw of 80.73m on his first attempt. The Asian Games silver medallist’s second throw was invalid and he could only get 80.21m on his last attempt.

As a result, Jena finished ninth in his heat and outside the qualification spots as the top 12 athletes across both heats made the final.

Meanwhile, quartermiler Kiran Pahal clocked 52.59 seconds to finish last in her repechage round heat in the women’s 400m and failed to make it to the semi-final.

She had earlier finished seventh in her round 1 heat, clocking 52.51s on Monday before moving to the repechage round.

Only the top three athletes from every round 1 heat advanced to the semi-final. They will be joined in the semis by the repechage round heat toppers and the two fastest athletes besides them.