Defending Olympic champion Neeraj Chopra said he has saved his best for the final after topping the men’s javelin throw qualification with a throw of 89.34m in the Paris Olympics here at the Stade de France on Tuesday.

Neeraj achieved the best throw of the qualification across both groups in his first attempt to start his title defence in style. He won the gold medal in the Tokyo 2020 Olympics with a throw of 87.58m. He became the first Indian to win an individual Olympic gold medal in the track and field event.

“This is just the qualification round, the mindset and the situation in the final are different. I should focus on the preparations for the final after getting a good start,” Neeraj told reporters after the end of the qualification round.

The 26-year-old said all the throwers who have qualified with the automatic qualification mark of 84m will be tough competition in the final. However, he emphasised that he had saved his best for the medal event.

“I’m saving the best for the final and focussing on it. I’m ready for the final. I was not doing good here in the practice but when the qualification started, I had set the aim of qualifying in the first throw. My fitness is better now and I warmed up well before taking the first attempt,” Neeraj said.

Other than Neeraj, eight athletes qualified for the final with the automatic qualification mark including Grenada’s Anderson Peters (88.63m), Julian Weber (87.76m) of Germany, Arshad Nadeem (86.59m) of Pakistan and Julius Yego of Kenya (85.97m), who completed the top five.

Talking about his mindset, Neeraj said he tries to give his best in the first throw. “I try to do well from the first throw itself but it doesn’t happen every time. If I fail to get the best out of first throw then I try to do my best in every throw,” he said.

When asked about the adductor injury that he sustained earlier in the year, Neeraj said, “I’m (feeling) better and taking all the precautions with a proper warm-up before the throw.

India’s Kishore Kumar Jena, who was in Group A, failed to reach the final after notching the best effort of 80.73m which came in his first attempt. The second throw was a foul before he threw 80.21m in the third attempt.

Neeraj, the reigning world and Asian champion, will aim to become the first Indian athlete to clinch two individual gold medals in the Olympics on Thursday (August 8).

Meanwhile, Chopra returned home to India a national hero after winning Olympic javelin gold in 2021 but the farmer’s son has never forgotten his humble roots.

“Every moment you train is an opportunity to surpass the greatest you’ve been,” he wrote this year on social media, detailing his gruelling preparation schedule for the Paris Games, which start on July 26. “There is a saying that throwers have no finish line. The best thing is that we have our javelin. We can always push ourselves,” Chopra said after winning world championship gold in 2023.

Agencies