Pakistan's javelin thrower Arshad Nadeem, who is also the current Commonwealth Games champion, qualified for the final of the World Athletics Championships 2023 as well as booked a spot in the 2024 Paris Olympics with a throw of 86.79m. This throw was still more than 2m short of Neeraj Chopra's mark but was still enough to get Nadeem entry into the final. Earlier, in Group A qualifications, Neeraj had thrown a distance of 88.77m to qualify for the final as well as Olympics in just the first attempt.
Also Read | Top 10 Longest Throws Of Neeraj Chopra
Watch Arshad's brilliant throw that helped him enter the WAC final:
Video: Pakistan's Arshad Nadeem directly qualifies for Paris Olympics and #WorldAthleticsChamps final. Alhamdulillah ____ pic.twitter.com/YQmzhbdqOr
— Farid Khan (@_FaridKhan) August 25, 2023
Neeraj eventually topped the qualifications round as only three athletes could go past the qualification mark of 83m. They were Neeraj, Arshad and Czech Republic's Jakub Vadlejch, who threw a distance of 83.50m. All threw recorded their season's best.
Not to forget, among the finalists of the Men's Javelin event of World Championships are two more Indians. They are DP Manu, who threw 81.31m to qualify and the other is Kishore Jena who threw 80.55m to make it through. The biggest disappointment was World Champion Anderson Peters failing to make the cut, unable to cross the 80m mark even once during the Group A qualifications.
Coming back to Nadeem, he is Pakistan's best bet to get them a World Athletics Championship medal. Nadeem is among the rare javelin throwers who have crossed the 90m mark to join an elite club of which even Neeraj Chopra is not a part yet.
Nadeem had finished fifth in Tokyo Olympics while he also got the same position at the World Athletics Championships last year. His best recent achievement is his throw of 90.18m that won him the gold in the Commonwealth Games 2022 in Birmingham.
Nadeem sees Neeraj as his inpsiration. The two athletes shared mutual respect. Neeraj has previously said in his interviews that he is impressed with the journey of Nadeem and that with so many good javelin throwers coming up, it makes the competition tougher and winning becomes even sweeter due to the same reason.
Coming to Neeraj, he showed he is the best in the world currently. In his Group, he was the only one who directly qualified with just one throw. He looks in great shape and is ready to change the colour of his medal. Neeraj won his first World Championship medal in 2022, a silver, which was India's second-old medal in the event, the first being a bronze by long jumper Anju Bobby George. Neeraj aims for India's third while he also looks to change the colour from silver to gold.
