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India's star javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra has qualified for the men's javelin throw final in the World Athletics Championships 2025 in Tokyo on Wednesday. Neeraj secured his place in the final with a throw of 84.85m in the first round. The final of this event will be held on Thursday, September 18th.
All it takes is one throw. 🌟
Wake up, throw, qualify. #TeamIIS star Neeraj Chopra storms into the Tokyo World Championships final with an 84.85m throw on his very first attempt.#WorldAthleticsChamps #CraftingVictories 🇮🇳 pic.twitter.com/YYcvXH59wA
Neeraj is the defending champion
Neeraj Chopra needed to cross the 84.5m mark to reach the final of this event and he achieved this feat by crossing this hurdle in the very first round. Neeraj Chopra is the winner of the javelin throw event at the World Championships and won the gold medal in the year 2023. He was the first Asian to win a gold medal in the javelin throw event at the Championships.
So, Neeraj is competing in the event as the defending champion and will be aiming to become only the third player in history to win the World Javelin title twice in a row, after Jan Zelezny (1993, 1995) and Grenada's Anderson Peters (2019, 2022).
Neeraj won the gold medal in 2023 with a throw of 88.17m, while Pakistan's Arshad Nadeem finished second with a throw of 87.82m and Jakub Vadlejch finished third with a throw of 86.67m.
Neeraj recently breached 90m barrier
Earlier this year, Neeraj breached the 90m barrier with a 90.23m throw at the Doha Diamond League, but has also mixed in a few modest distances along the way. He had failed to breach the 85m in two competitions, and narrowly crossed the mark on two other occasions, with his second-best throw in the calendar year being 88.16m.
Weber qualified for the final
This time, apart from Neeraj Chopra, world number one Julian Weber qualified for the final by throwing 87.21m in the second attempt. Weber threw 82.29m in his first attempt. Neeraj was joined in Group A by India's Sachin Yadav, who threw 80.16m in his first attempt.
Other athletes in the 19-man Group A included 2012 Olympic champion Keshorn Walcott of Trinidad and Tobago, Tokyo Olympics silver medallist Jakub Vadlejch of the Czech Republic, as well as Brazil's Luiz da Silva,
While the 18-strong Group B comprises reigning Olympic champion Arshad Nadeem, Anderson Peters and rising Sri Lankan Rumesh Tharanga Pathirage among others. The men's javelin also has three other Indian athletes - Sachin Yadav, Yashvir Singh and Rohit Yadav, the biggest number among participating nations in the event.