Indian ace Javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra booked his place into the finals of the event at the Paris Olympics on Tuesday, August 6. The defending Olympic champion sealed his spot at the top of the 12-man final in his first throw which reached a distance of 89.34m.
The throw was Neeraj's best in the ongoing season and the second-best of his career. His previous season's best throw was 88.36m which he achieved at the Doha Diamond League in May 2024. Notably, his career-best throw is 89.94m which came at the Stockholm Diamond League in 2022.
While Neeraj made it to his second consecutive final at the Games, Kishore Jena, the other Indian in the fray, missed out on the final. Jena finished 18th overall in the 32-athlete field, where only 12 qualified for the final. The reigning champion will now look to defend his Olympic gold in the summit clash. He had earlier won the gold in the Tokyo Games with a throw of 87.54m to become the first Indian track and field athlete with a gold at the Games.
When is the Javelin throw final?
Neeraj Chopra's Javelin final is scheduled to take place on August 8. The final is scheduled to begin at 8:25 PM local time, which is 11:55 PM IST on August 8.
Who are the other finalists apart from Neeraj?
The 12-man field of the finalists features some tough competitors for Neeraj in the form of Czechia's Jakub Vadlejch, Grenada's Anderson Peters, Pakistan's Arshad Nadeem and Germany's Julian Weber. There are other strong competitors too and the Indian champion will need to be at his best in his bid for the second gold. The young wunderkind of Germany Max Dehning could not cross the qualification hurdle as he went to a distance of 79.24m, much below his personal best of 90.20m.
The 12 athletes to have booked a ticket for the finals are - Neeraj Chopra (89.34), Anderson Peters (88.63), Julian Weber (87.76), Arshad Nadeem (86.59), Julius Yego (85.97), Luiz Mauricio da Silva (85.91), Jakub Vadlejch (85.63), Toni Keranen (85.27), Andrian Mardare (84.13), Oliver Helander (83.81), Keshorn Walcott (83.02) and Lassi Etelatalo (82.91).
