Defending Olympic champion Neeraj Chopra reached the final of the men's javelin throw event with a mighty throw of 89.34m in the first attempt of the Group B qualification in the Paris Olympics here at the Stade de France on Tuesday.
Neeraj, who won India's individual gold medal in first track and field at the Olympics in Tokyo, started his title defence in style after breaching the automatic qualification mark of 84m in his opening throw by a huge margin.
It was also his best throw of the season and also the biggest among the players who achieved automatic qualification for the final across groups.
However, Neeraj, the reigning World and Asian Games champion, is yet to surpass the career-best throw of 89.94m achieved at the Stockholm Diamond League in Sweden on June 30, 2022.
In Group A, India's Kishore Kumar Jena, however, failed to reach the final after notching the best effort of 80.73m which came in his first attempt. The second throw was a foul before he threw 80.21m in the third attempt.
In Group B, Grenada's Anderson Peters and Pakistan's Arshad Nadeem also progressed to the final after throwing above the 84m mark. Both athletes achieved the feat in their opening attempts.
Peters threw 88.63m while Nadeem's effort finished third in the group with 86.59m throw, thus finishing behind Chopra.
Earlier in Group A qualification, Kenya's Julius Yego and Czech Republic's Jakub Vadlejch heaved throws of 85.97m and 85.63m respectively, which earned them automatic qualification for the final. Germany's Julian Weber also qualified with a throw of 87.76m.
Neeraj, the 2018 Commonwealth Games gold medallist, will aim to become the first Indian athlete to clinch two individual gold medals in the Olympics on Thursday (August 8).
(With inputs from IANS)
