Neeraj Chopra enters men's javelin throw final in first attempt, tops qualifiers with 86.65m throw

Neeraj Chopra, who is competing for the first time in the Olympics, performed better than 2017 world champion Johannes Vetter of Germany.

Indian javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra stormed into the finals with an impressive throw of 86.65m to top the Group A. The 23-year-old Neeraj directly qualified for the finals in the very first attempt at the ongoing Tokyo Olympics on Wednesday. Mr Chopra, who is competing for the first time in the Olympics, performed better than 2017 world champion Johannes Vetter of Germany.

Mr Vetter found it hard to qualify in the first two attempts but cleared the automatic qualification mark with a 85.64m final throw. The 28-year-old German, who is a gold medal favourite and easily crosses 90m+ mark, remained at seventh position after his first two attempts but eventually jumped to second position after his third and final throw.

Mr Chopra's performance turned out to be one of the best performances displayed by any Indian at the Olympics. The final will take place on Saturday. This throw was Mr Chopra's seventh best throw so far. 12 best performers or those who cross the 83.50m mark qualify for the final. Another Indian javelin thrower Shivpal Singh could not qualify as he scored 76.40m to finish 12th in Group B.