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 here on Tuesday.
Much like his qualifying round 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.
Chopra, also the reigning world champion, topped the qualification round -- combined of Group A and B -- with his monster throw. Two-time world champion Anderson Peters (88.63m) of Grenada was second in Group B and he was second overall also.
Julian Weber of Germany, who won Group A with 87.76, was third overall, while reigning Commonwealth Games champion Arshad Nadeem of Pakistan also qualified for the finals with a throw of 86.59m in Group B.
Tokyo Olympics silver medallist Jakub Vadlejch of Czech Republic, who was the only man to have beaten Chopra this year in Doha Diamond League, was seventh overall with a first round throw of 85.63m.
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. He finished ninth in Group A and 18th overall.
All those who throw 84m or above, or at least the 12 best performers from Group A and B combined will advance to the final. In fact nine throwers crossed the automatic final round qualification distance, which showed the quality of the competition.
In the final, Chopra will have a chance to become only the fifth man in Olympic javelin throw history to defend the title.
If he wins gold, and for that matter a medal, he will become the most decorated Indian in Olympics in individual sport.
Shuttler PV Sindhu (one silver, one bronze), wrestler Sushil Kumar (one silver, one bronze) and shooter Manu Bhaker (two bronze) have won two Olympic medal each post Independence.
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'.
There was an interesting similarity with the Tokyo Olympics qualification round on August 4, 2021. The then 23-year-old Chopra had needed just one throw of 86.65m to qualify for the final round of the Tokyo Olympics where he created history.
Three years and two days later, the athlete from Khandra village near Panipat in Haryana did the same, though with a monster throw this time.
His 89.34m throw may raise hopes of millions of Indian fans to see Chopra cross the elusive 90m mark on Thursday.
But the peaking of Peters could be an ominous sign. He has a personal best of 93.07m but has gone past 85m just four times in the last two years before Tuesday.
Earlier, India's Kishore Jena on Tuesday finished ninth in the men's javelin throw Group A qualification round with an underwhelming throw of 80.73m, leaving him on the verge of an early exit from the Olympics.
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 Czech Republic 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.
