The defending Tokyo Olympics champion, Neeraj Chopra, is planning a historic run at the 2023 World Athletics Championships. On Sunday, he will compete in the men’s javelin throw finals at the National Athletics Centre in Budapest, Hungary. The thrilling climax will be streamed live on the internet.
In the qualifying round on Friday, India’s Neeraj Chopra demonstrated his brilliance by clinching the top place with a spectacular throw of 88.77m, his best performance of the season. This outstanding feat secured his place among the top 12 contestants for the final round.
Despite his extraordinary achievements as an Olympic, Asian Games, Commonwealth Games, Diamond League, and U20 world champion, Neeraj Chopra, 25, has yet to win a senior world championship gold medal. His chase of this prized championship is still ongoing.
Neeraj Chopra came perilously close to being India’s first-ever global champion in athletics at the 2022 global Championships in Oregon. He did, however, win a silver medal after placing second against Grenada’s Anderson Peters. This was India’s first silver medal at the World Athletics Championships, following Anju Bobby George’s bronze in the long jump in the 2003 Paris event.
Neeraj Chopra’s travel to Budapest carries the weight of his desire to win the elusive gold medal, which would add to both his country’s glory and his personal collection of honors. Notably, the absence of Anderson Peters owing to his inability to advance past the qualifications gives Neeraj Chopra an added boost in his quest for the unprecedented achievement of a world title.
However, Neeraj Chopra’s journey is not without difficulties. The competition is filled with dangerous rivals, including Czech Republic’s Jakub Vadlejch, the silver medalist from Tokyo 2020; Pakistan’s Arshad Nadeem, the defending Commonwealth Games winner; and Germany’s Julian Weber, the European champion and world No. 2.
In an extraordinary turn of events, India is represented in the medal round by three excellent competitors. Manu DP, a silver medallist at the 2023 Asian Athletics Championships, and Kishore Jena have won their places in this unprecedented world championships final with Neeraj Chopra.