Paris Olympics 2024: Neeraj Chopra, Andersen Peters, Arshad Nadeem among finalists from javelin throw Group B

Neeraj Chopra was a man on a mission, when he took the field in the Group B Men’s Javelin Throw qualification at the Paris Olympics. As the defending Olympic champion, he not only needed to register automatic qualification with a throw over 84-metres, but he also had to do it convincingly so.

As the first competitor of Group B, Neeraj took his place, and the ran up to throw the javelin to a monstrous 89.34m in his very first attempt. Not only had he qualified for the final on August 8, he was also leading the table across both groups at this point. Arshad Nadeem followed shortly after, with a distance of 86.59m.

Andersen Peters, whose personal best is a whopping 93.07, came for his first throw, which landed just short of Chopra’s attempt, with a distance of 88.63m. The fourth automatic qualification from Group B was Luiz Maurício da Silva with 85.91m, with Andrian Mardare clocking 84.13m.

Interestingly, Chopra’s Tokyo Olympics gold medal throw was almost 2 metres less at 87.58m, a distance that including the champ, two others have crossed in qualification. His 89.34m first attempt today, is also shy of his personal best, which stands at 89.94m. Hours earlier, India’s Kishore Kumar Jena had been placed ninth in the Group A qualification, that was topped by Julian Weber.

Paris Olympics 2024: India’s Kishore Jena on list of men’s javelin throw finalists from Group A? 

The combined list of qualifiers for the Men’s javelin final on August 8 is as follows