Neeraj Chopra in action during Paris Olympics 2024© AFP
Defending champion Neeraj Chopra turned on the style as he stormed into the men's javelin throw final of the Olympic Games with a season's best effort of 89.34m in his very first attempt in the qualification round on Tuesday. Much like his performance in the Tokyo Olympics, the 26-year-old crossed the automatic qualifying mark of 84m in his opening throw to occupy the top spot in Group B. The tremendous effort, which is the second best of his career, also set aside concerns surrounding Chopra's fitness after he revealed that he had been battling an adductor niggle in the build-up to the Games. His personal best continues to be 89.94m achieved back in 2022.
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The other Indian in fray, Kishore Jena, bowed out of contention to make the 12-man final on Thursday after managing a poor throw of 80.73m.
Pakistan's Arshad Nadeem, who is the reigning Commonwealth Games champion, also qualified for the finals with a throw of 86.59m in Group B.
From the same group, Grenada veteran Anderson Peters too made the cut with a throw of 88.63m.
Chopra produced the most eye-catching performance of the day lasting just a few minutes -- quite literally a case of 'he came, he threw and he conquered'.
Earlier in the day, Jena finished ninth in Group A qualification round with an underwhelming throw of 80.73m, which has pushed him out of contention for a slot in the finals.
All those who throw 84m or above, or at least 12 best performers from Group A and B combined will advance to the final to be held on Thursday.
Jena's opening throw was 80.73m, and he fouled his second attempt before coming up with 80.21m in his last effort.
Julian Weber of Germany topped Group A with a first round throw of 87.76m while former world champion Julius Yego (85.97m) of Kenya and Tokyo Olympics silver medallist Jakub Vadlejch (85.63m) of Czechia were second and third respectively.
Toni Keranen (85.27m) of Finland was the fourth athlete to go past the automatic qualification mark of 84m.
Jena had booked an automatic Olympics berth with his 87.54m throw for a silver medal in the Asian Games in October last year.
After that, he crossed the 80m mark in just one out of six competitions before Tuesday.