Three Indians head into the final of the men’s javelin throw event in Budapest on Sunday as the World Athletics Championships 2023 draws towards the finale, spearheaded by the ace thrower Neeraj Chopra, who will look to better his silver medal-winning exploits in the previous edition of the WAC in Eugene.
Flanking him will be Odisha’s Kishore Jena, who has had to endure his share of obstacles to the finals of the prestigious event in Hungary, while DP Manu will also look to make his name seen on the global stage as the Indian athletes take centre stage in the summit clash on the event on the ultimate day of the tournament.
Neeraj Chopra:
The golden boy of Indian track and field stated that he could carry the lofty Indian ambition on the world stage with his Olympic gold in Tokyo. His win at the Diamond League in 2022 was the confirmation of his stake in the very sport of track and field in the contemporary era and his silver at the previous World in Eugene serves as the impetus to go one better to where no Indian has gone before with a gold at the World Athletics Championships.
He also claimed the title at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham and his best throw still just shy of the 90m mark, standing at 89.94 will fuel his desire to scale at the coveted mark in Budapest.
Chopra’s 2023 showings have been a pat on the back for the Indian faithful who wish to see the boy from Haryana succeed at every level possible since he began realising his potential to bring laurels to the nation.
Chopra’s zenith place sealing mammoth 88.67m throw at the Diamond League Meeting in Doha in May was followed by a 87.66m effort in Lausanne, also placing him at the very top of the event.
Chopra peaked at the right time this year as he scaled his season best of 88.77m in the very first attempt of the qualifiers as he exhibited incredible agility and control to stay within the bounds stipulated to make his attempt count, thus sealing the first spot in the final as he shattered the automatic qualification mark.
The lad from Khandra will be looking to add to his burgeoning collection of medal in Budapest as he seeks to get the better of his competitors headlined by Pakistan’s Arshad Nadeem, who has beat Chopra in the race of scale the 90m mark, and Czech big man Jakub Vadlejch, who qualified with a throw of 83.50m on Friday.
Kishore Jena:
Jena’s best qualification throw of 80.55m, which ensured his path into the final round as the 9th overall in the standings, came on his first attempt and ensured that he would make that cut from Group B at the end of the premils.
The 27-year-old athlete faced multiple challenges to reach the finals of the Worlds in Budapest, including a visa incident that could have prevented the Odisha-born athlete from showing his worth on the international stage.
However, following quick interventions from the authorities involved, Jena’s predicament was resolved in the eleventh hour and Jena justified his place with a throw of 80.55m in the qualifiers to seal his place in the championship round.
Jena’s season was off with a 79.93 throw at the Indian Open Throws Competition in Bellary in March and has gone through ups-and-downs there on.
He topped the Indian Grand Prix event in Trivandrum with a throw of 81.05 to finish ahead of Manu, but his performance at the same event in Bengaluru was sub-par in Bengaluru as his best in Karnataka in 2023 was 77.22m.
His performance at 26th National Federation Cup Senior Athletics Championships left a lot to be desired as he could only throw 76.17, but was back on the podium at the Indian Championships with a throw of 79.96m.
His showing at the Indian Championships in Odisha in June came in at 82.87 in front of his home crowd as he placed second.
Jena turned in his PB of 84.38m in 2023 which he achieved at Diyagama, Sri Lanka in July.
DP Manu:
The Pune-born Manu, who has claimed the silver medal at the Asian Championships once and the national Championship once, has a personal best of 84.35m and sealed his place in Sunday’s finale with a throw of 81.31m in the qualifiers to ensure not one but three athletes will represent the tricolour in Budapest on the final day of the World event in Hungary.
Manu has had a great season himself as he registered 80m plus throws at the Indian Grand Prix in Trivandrum and Bengaluru, where he took the tops spot, in 2023 with 80.61 and 84.33 m efforts.
He came in with a performance of 82.95 at the 26th National Federation Cup Senior Athletics Championships.
Things did not go to script for the 23-year-old at the Indian Championships as his best attempts were 76.21 and 76.85.
However, he got his mojo back at the Asian Athletics Championships where he came in second with a throw of 81.01 in Thailand.
He started the qualifiers earlier in the week with an attempt of 78.10m and came in with a throw of 81.31 in his second attempt, which shot him into the final as the sixth in the overall standings.
He will be hoping to give a good account of himself in the final of the WAC 2023 in Budapest as one of three athletes to take the field on Sunday.
(With Inputs from Bajaj)
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