All the three Indian javelin throwers — Neeraj Chopra, DP Manu, and Kishore Kumar Jena who were in action at the 2023 World Athletics Championships in Budapest qualified for the men’s final on Friday.
While Chopra achieved the qualification mark with his very first throw of 88.77m and made it to the final as the qualification round winner, Manu (81.31m) and Jena (80.55m) qualified in the sixth and ninth spot respectively.
Chopra’s effort also saw him breach the qualification standard (85m) for the 2024 Paris Olympics and secure himself a berth to defend his Tokyo title next year.
The direct final qualification mark for the event in Budapest stood at 83m. Only two other athletes - Czech Republic’s Jakub Vadlejch (83.50m in his third attempt) and Pakistan’s Arshad Nadeem (86.79m in his third attempt), apart from Chopra attained that standard.
While Manu and Jena made it to their first World Championships final on debut, the reigning Olympic champion Chopra would look to pocket the gold medal - the only title eluding him, come the final on Sunday.
The 25-year-old from Haryana had finished second best with a silver medal behind Grenada’s Anderson Peters in the previous edition of the global event in Eugene.
Peters failed to qualify for the final in Budapest as he finished 16th overall with a best of 78.49m in the qualification round.
The others who have qualified for the men’s javelin final include Julian Weber, Edis Matusevicius, Dawid Wegner, Ihab Abdelrahman, Oliver Helander, Timothy Herman, and Andrian Mardare.
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