Olympic champion Neeraj Chopra is hot favourite for a javelin medal at World Athletics Championships 2022. The final is on July 24 (Sunday).
Neeraj Chopra will aim for his first-ever World Athletics Championships medal when the Olympic champion takes the 12-man strong field on Sunday (July 24) in Eugene. Another Indian in the fray, Rohit Yadav will also be in action in the men’s javelin throw final besides Chopra. (More Sports News)
The men’s javelin throw final can be seen live in India from 7:05 AM IST. Neeraj Chopra took just 12 seconds to sail into the final with his stunning first attempt throw of 88.39m in Group A. 83.50m was the qualification mark required to book a place in the final.
The 24-year-old Indian superstar is a hot favourite for a medal and is expected to finish at the podium. Chopra finished second best overall behind defending champion Anderson Peters of Grenada, who topped Group B with his opening round effort of 89.91m.
Competing at his first-ever World Championships, Rohit Yadav made it to the finals after finishing sixth in Group B qualification round, and 11th overall, with his first-round throw of 80.42m. His second throw was a foul and he managed a modest 77.32m in his last attempt.
Chopra, who has a personal best of 89.94m, had competed in the 2017 London World Championships with the hope of at least making it to the finals but managed only 82.26m to fall short of the automatic qualification mark of 83m.
He had missed the 2019 World Championships in Doha as he was recovering from an elbow surgery. If Chopra wins in the final on Sunday, he will become only the third male javelin thrower to follow Olympic success with World Championship gold.
The other two persons to achieve the feat are Norway's Andreas Thorkildsen (2008-09) and world record holder Jan Zelezny of Czech Republic in 2000-01 and 1992-93. Chopra had become the first Indian track and field athlete to bag an Olympic gold last year and is also the reigning Commonwealth Games and Asian Games champion.
He has been in tremendous form this season having broken his own national record twice. He did that first in his season-opening outing at the Paavo Nurmi Games at Turku in Finland with a throw of 89.30m on June 14.
He bettered his national mark again during the prestigious Diamond League Meeting in Stockholm on June 30 with an effort of 89.94m, just 6cm shy of 90m, the gold standard of the javelin world. In between, he won gold at the Kuortane Games in Finland in a with a throw of 86.79m.
However, things won’t be easy for both Chopra and Yadav as the field in the final consists of world record holder Anderson Peters of Grenada, Olympic silver medallist Jakub Vadlejch of Czech Republic, Finland's Oliver Helander and the German Julian Weber.
Sony Sports Network is telecasting the World Athletics Championships 2022 in India, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Live streaming of the men’s javelin throw final at World Athletics Championships 2022 will be available on SonyLIV app. Fans can also watch the events live on the Facebook page and YouTube channel of World Athletics.