Olympic champion Neeraj Chopra will compete in India for the first time since winning Gold in the Tokyo Games at this week’s Federation Cup in Bhubaneshwar. The superstar athlete will not be participating in the qualification round on Tuesday, having earned a direct entry to the finals on Friday, May 15. The Fed Cup final will be Neeraj’s first competitive event in India after March 2021.
Kishore Jena, Asian Games silver medalist, has also been given a direct entry to the final along with DP Manu, who finished sixth in the 2023 World Championships. Manu is bidding to book a place in the Tokyo Olympics, for which the cut-off is 85.50m. The Paris 2024 Olympic qualification window for men’s javelin throw will run from July 1, 2023, to June 30, 2024. Manu, who threw a personal best of 84.35m in 2022, will be keen on making a mark in the Fed Cup.
“All those who have crossed 75m will not compete in the qualifying round on Tuesday. There are nine of them from among those who had made entries, including Neeraj and Jena. They will directly compete in the final on Wednesday,” Indian athletics head coach Radhakrishnan Nair said, as quoted by PTI news agency.
“The remaining who have below 75m mark will compete in the qualifying round and the top three will join the nine above-75m throwers in the final,” he said.
Neeraj Chopra and Kishore Jena competed in the Doha Diamond League last week. Neeraj finished second with a best effort of 88.38m, 2 cm less than Jakub Vadlejch who won the season-opening Diamond League meet. Kishore Jena’s Diamond League debut, however, did not go according to plan as his best effort of 76.31m was not enough for him to finish in the top 8.
Neeraj had started slow in Doha, but dug deep to produce his best throw in the final attempt. Former world champion Anderson Peters registered his season-best with an effort of 86.62m to finish third.
Both Neeraj and Manu will be hoping for a better show in Bhubaneshwar. And it remains to be seen if home conditions will inspire Neeraj to produice that special 90-plus throw. Neeraj was hopeful of breaching it in Doha, but conditions did not favour the javelin throwers to go big.
“I felt good that I threw over 88. I am satisfied with the result, but not satisfied with my effort. I need work hard and maybe in the next competition, I will throw far,” Neeraj said on Friday.
“Today I felt I could do it, but somewhere I could not. Maybe God wants me to do it somewhere else. I told yesterday that I am happy with my consistent performance. I will throw over 90 metres,” he added.
Source Agencies
