Neeraj Chopra Dominates Olympic Javelin Qualification with Season-Best 89.34m Throw

India's star javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra made a great start to the Paris Olympics. Neeraj came first to start in the Group B qualification and gave his best performance of the season, throwing 89.34 meters in the first attempt, which was much higher than the automatic qualification of 84 meters. Neeraj has made a great start to defend his gold medal and a similar performance is expected from him in the final. Apart from Neeraj, his opponent Arshad Nadeem of Pakistan also performed brilliantly in the first attempt and automatically qualified for the final by throwing 86.59 meters. Like Neeraj, this was Arshad's best throw of the season. Neeraj entered the final by topping both Group A and B. Defending Olympic and world champion Neeraj won the Tokyo Olympics gold medal with an effort of 87.58 meters. The final match will be held on August 8 from 11.50 pm Indian time. Neeraj did not participate further after the first attempt

Grenada's Anderson Peters also performed brilliantly and qualified for the final in the first attempt. Peters threw 88.63 in the first attempt and was the third athlete to qualify directly from Group B. Neeraj was the best performing athlete in the first attempt. After directly qualifying for the final in the first attempt, Neeraj and Arshad decided not to participate further in the qualification and they did not come to throw the javelin in the other attempt.

Neeraj is one step away from winning two Olympic golds

Neeraj will now enter the final with the intention of becoming the fifth male javelin thrower to retain the title in Olympic history. If he wins the title, he will also become the first Indian to win two gold medals in the Olympic individual category. So far, Eric Lemming (Sweden, 1908 and 1912), Jonni Myra (Finland, 1920 and 1924), Chopra's idol Jan Zelenzi (Czech Republic, 1992 and 1996) and Andreas T (Norway, 2004 and 2008) have been able to defend their titles in the Olympic javelin throw event.

Who all qualified from Group B?

Apart from Neeraj, former world champion Anderson Peters (88.63 meters) of Grenada, Commonwealth Games gold medalist Arshad Nadeem (86.59 meters) of Pakistan, Luis Mauricio da Silva (85.91 meters) of Brazil and Adrian Mardare (84.13 meters) of Moldova also made it directly to the finals by throwing the javelin more than 84 meters.