World Athletics: Neeraj Chopra aims to give his best after making javelin final

Eugene (Oregon): After qualifying for the final of the World Athletics Championships 2022 javelin throw competition, Indian ace Neeraj Chopra said anyone can throw far on a given day but he will give his 100 per cent in the summit clash on Sunday.

Placed in Group A at Hayward Field, Neeraj, the reigning Olympic champion, produced an impressive throw of 88.39 metres in Round 1 and topped Group A of the qualification round to reach the final.

Neeraj set the tone in Group A with an 88.39 metre throw in his very first attempt and didn’t take his second and third attempts.

“It was a good start. I am also happy for Jakub. I’ll give my 100 percent in the final. We’ll see. Every day is different. I’ll just give my best. We don’t know who can throw far on any given day,” Neeraj was quoted as saying by olympics.com.

“There are so many throwers in good shape now. Five-six throwers have thrown personal bests this year. They are all in excellent shape. There is a little bit of zigzag in my run-up. I shook a little bit, but it was a good throw,” he added.

This was the third-best throw Chopra has recorded in his career. He set a national record of 89.94 metres en route to a silver medal at the Stockholm Diamond League earlier this year.

Notably, he failed to get past the qualifying round at the 2017 Worlds in London, his debut World Championships and missed the 2019 World Championships in Doha due to an injury.

Eldhose Paul became the first Indian to qualify for the men’s triple jump final at the Worlds with an effort of 16.68 metres here.

Placed in Group A, Paul, who posted a personal best jump of 16.99 at the Federation Cup earlier this year, finished 12th overall to squeeze through for the 12-man final. However, the other two Indians in the fray - Praveen Chithravel, also competing in Group A, and Abdulla Aboobacker, in Group B -- missed the cut on Thursday.