New Delhi: Neeraj Chopra failed to defend his world championship title after finishing eighth in the overall standings. He managed his best effort of 84.03
in his second attempt, fouling in two out of five attempts.
Aiming to defend his world championship crown, the gold medallist at Budapest in 2023 and a silver medallist at Oregon in 2022, Neeraj needed just one throw of 84.85m in qualifying to secure his spot in the final. However, he was nowhere near his best in the final round. His eighth-placed finish also marked the end of a dominating streak of top-two finishes in the last four years in a whopping 26 events.
Neeraj fails to recreate Tokyo magic
Neeraj, the Tokyo Olympics champion, has been consistently finishing in the top 2 in the Javelin Throw. Before the Tokyo world championships, Neeraj hadn’t finished out of the top two since June 2021, when he was placed third in the Kourtane Games.
Meanwhile, his Pakistani rival Nadeem, who left it late by breaching the automatic qualification mark in his third and final throw on Wednesday, also failed to fire on a rainy evening in Tokyo.
India vs Pakistan contest ends in a whimper
The contest between Chopra and Nadeem was billed as a blockbuster India vs Pakistan battle, but both athletes made underwhelming starts in the final. While Chopra threw (84.03, 83.65) in his first two attempts, Olympic champion Nadeem, who came into the event after undergoing calf surgery, was in 10th spot, and crashed out after four attempts: 82.73, X, 82.75, X.
Trinidad & Tobago’s Keshorn Walcott took the top spot after two rounds, after a monster throw of 87.83 in his second attempt. He asserted his dominance with an even bigger throw of 88.14 on his fourth attempt.
Julian Weber began proceedings and reached 83.63m in his first attempt. Grenada’s Anderson Peters, who was second in line, bagged 84.59m. Pakistan’s Arshad Nadeem managed 82.73m in his first effort. Neeraj Chopra, the next athlete to hurl the throw, managed 83.65m and moved to second place, behind Peters.
However, the USA’s Curtis Thompson overtook the field after the first throw with a superb effort of 86.67m. Next up was India’s Sachin Yadav, who stunned the Japan National Stadium with a massive throw of 86.27m. His mammoth effort took him to the second spot.
