Neeraj Chopra made an impressive start at the ongoing World Athletics Championship in Budapest, Hungary, taking just one attempt to qualify for the final round. He also qualified for the Paris Olympics, which will be held next year. Neeraj threw the javelin 88.77m in his first attempt in the Group A qualification round, which was also his season's best.
The 2024 Paris Olympics qualifying mark is 85.50m. The qualifying window had opened on July 1.
Apart from Neeraj, DP Manu and Kishore Jena also qualified for the final. Manu's best attempt was recorded at 81.31m, while Jena touched 80.55m. It is also the first time three Indians qualified the final of an event in the World Championships. The final will be held on Sunday.
Meanwhile, if we shift our focus back to Neeraj, he topped the qualification round. The Tokyo Olympic medallist had won a silver in the previous edition of the World Championship, which was held in USA. He would now hope to claim a gold and also breach the 90m mark, a target that Neeraj has been chasing for a long time.
{{/usCountry}}Meanwhile, if we shift our focus back to Neeraj, he topped the qualification round. The Tokyo Olympic medallist had won a silver in the previous edition of the World Championship, which was held in USA. He would now hope to claim a gold and also breach the 90m mark, a target that Neeraj has been chasing for a long time.
{{/usCountry}}Soon after the event, Neeraj said he was confident to qualify for the final with one attempt. "During the warm-up I felt the power and knew I could make it with only one throw. It felt great releasing the javelin and the result was very satisfying. I was able to save energy for the final since I threw with only 90 per cent effort. I will definitely give everything in the final as I would like to have a world gold as well (as one from the Olympic Games)," said Neeraj.
The missing gold
Meanwhile, a world championships gold is the only medal missing from Neeraj's decorated cabinet. If we look at the performance by other participants in the initial round, Neeraj will fancy his chances to finally get his hands on the gold medal.
Neeraj has previously won gold medals in Olympics (Tokyo in 2021), Asian Games (2018) and Commonwealth Games (2018), besides becoming the Diamond League champion last year.
However, he could only compete in Doha and Lausanne Diamond League Meetings this year, and won both of them.
Indian athletes who have qualified for Paris 2024
Six track and field athletes have already qualified for the 2024 Olympics before Neeraj. Akshdeep Singh, Vikas Singh and Paramjeet Bisht qualified for men's 20km race walk and Priyanka Goswami made the cut for women's 20km race walk. Long jumper Murali Sreeshankar and 3000m steeplechaser Avinash Sable have also qualified.