Neeraj Chopra, Rohit Yadav in Javelin Final; Eldhose Paul Leaps into Triple Jump Summit Round at World Championships
Neeraj Chopra in action in the qualifiers of the men’s javelin event of the World Championships in Eugene, Oregon.
Neeraj Chopra made short work of his qualifying round at the World Championships in Eugene, Oregon, on Thursday. The Olympic champion qualified for his maiden Worlds final with a first attempt throw of 88.39 metres.
Chopra, 24, opened the men's javelin throw Group A qualification round with his third career-best throw, storming into the final that would be held on Sunday (7:05 am IST).
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Those who clear 83.50m, or the 12 best performers across two qualification round groups, got entry into the final. Defending champion Anderson Peters of Grenada and another Indian, Rohit Yadav made it into the final from Group B. Yadav’s best throw of 80.42m placed him among the 12 qualifiers.
Chopra, who has a personal best of 89.94m, competed in the 2017 London World Championships. He only 82.26m to fall short of the automatic qualification mark of 83m. He had also missed the 2019 World Championships in Doha, recovering from an elbow surgery.
Meanwhile, national record holder Annu Rani will be in action in the women’s javelin throw final on Friday. She finished 5th in her qualifying group (B) with a best throw of 59.60m. Overall, Rani qualified 8th with Japan’s Haruka Kitaguchi topping the qualification with a season-best throw of 64.32m, followed by Shiying Liu of China (63.86m) and Liveta Jasiunaite of Lithuania (63.80m).
It was a day of good news for India with triple-jumper Eldhose Pual qualifying for the final with a jump of 16.68m. Paul became the first Indian to qualify for the triple jump final at the World Championships.
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He finished sixth in Group A qualification round and 12th overall to make the cut for Sunday's final (6:50am IST). The 25-year-old Paul, who reached Eugene just a few days ago due to visa issues, has a season's and personal best of 16.99m which he had recorded while winning gold in the Federation Cup in April.
The two other Indians, Praveen Chithravel and Abdulla Aboobacker failed to make it to the finals after jumps of 16.49m and 16.45m respectively. Chitravel finished eighth in Group A and 17th overall while Aboobacker ended at 10th in Group B and 19th overall.
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