Back at his happy hunting ground in Tokyo’s National Stadium, where he was crowned Olympic champion in 2021, Neeraj Chopra made a perfect start to his men’s javelin title defence at the World Athletics Championships by qualifying for the final with his very first throw.
The Indian ace needed to clear 84.50m for automatic qualification and did so with a smooth 84.85m effort on his opening attempt, extending his remarkable record of sealing qualification with a single throw for the fifth major event in a row.
Adding to India’s cause, Sachin Yadav produced a personal milestone of his own, joining Chopra in Thursday’s 12-man final. The 25-year-old hurled 83.67m in his third attempt to finish 10th overall, thus becoming the second Indian in the high-profile final.
But all eyes will be on the looming showdown between Chopra and Pakistan’s Arshad Nadeem, a rivalry that has come to define the global javelin stage in recent years. Nadeem, the reigning Olympic champion, endured a nervy start in Group B but recovered strongly to register 85.28m with his second throw and secure his place in the final.
The line-up promises a blockbuster, with some of the world’s best joining the Chopra–Nadeem duel. Grenada’s Anderson Peters underlined his pedigree with a massive 89.53m second-attempt throw, the best of qualification, while Germany’s recently crowned Diamond League champion Julian Weber (87.21m) and Poland’s Dawid Wegner (85.67m) also progressed. Czech star Jakub Vadlejch, the 2012 Olympic champion Keshorn Walcott, Kenya’s Julius Yego, and USA’s Curtis Thompson rounded out a stacked field.
In the previous edition of the World Athletics Championships, Neeraj threw 88.17m to finish top of the podium. He became the first Asian to win a gold medal in the javelin throw event at the Championships. Nadeem (87.22m) finished second, while Vadlejch (86.67m) bagged the bronze medal.
For Chopra, this was the fifth occasion of one-throw wonders, having sealed finals in a single attempt at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, the 2022 and 2023 World Championships, and the 2024 Paris Olympics. Earlier this year, he 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.
For Sachin, meanwhile, Thursday offers the biggest stage yet to showcase his growing promise.
The other Indians in action, Rohit Yadav (77.81m) and Yash Vir (77.51m), fell short of the qualification mark.