Neeraj Chopra cut short his work during the men's javelin throw qualifiers on Thursday (July 22) when he threw a brilliant 88.39m in only his first attempt. The 24-year-old Track and Field star from India will play his first-ever senior senior World Championships final on Saturday (Sunday morning in India). Rohit Yadav, who will be throwing in the Group B qualifiers, can become the second Indian to join him for the final two days later. The qualification mark was 83.5m and Neeraj ran in with full force to get the monkey off his back in only the first attempt. 




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Not to forget, Neeraj was eager to cross the hurdle of the qualifiers as he had missed the final at the last World Championships in London back in 2017. He regretted no taking the qualifiers too seriously last time around. This year he wanted to throw in qualifiers with the same vigour as in the final and it showed with his 88.39 attempt.


The Olympic champion came into the qualifiers of the World Championships on the back of a superb performances at season's first three events. He broke his national record in the first event of the season at Paavo Nurmi Games, where he threw 89.30m to clinch a silver medal. Then a few days later, he clinched his first gold of the season in wet conditions at Kuortane Games before he broke his national record again at the Stockholm Diamond League with a superb throw of 89.94m, missing the elusive 90m mark by just 0.6 cms. 


The 90m mark is in the sight of Neeraj but he and his coach Klaus Bartonietz are not too bothered about. With a few technincal tweaks in the angle of the release, Neeraj hopes to sort it. But for now, his focus is to be the best version of himself on the day of throw. "At Paavo Nurmi Games, the javelin got stuck in the wind a bit. In Stockholm Diamond League, the throws were going slightly left. So, he (Klaus) tells me that the throws are good but I need to perfect my angle of release to add 2-3 meters," Neeraj had said.