It’s Neeraj Chopra vs Arshad Nadeem at World Athletics Championships in Tokyo

The men’s javelin final at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo will see another round of India versus Pakistan rivalry, where the defending World Champion and two time Olympic-medallist Neeraj Chopra will be up against reigning Olympic Champion Arshad Nadeem.

In the Group A of the qualification round, 27-year-old Neeraj registered a throw of 84.50 metres to clear the qualification mark of 84m in his first attempt to qualify for the final which is scheduled for Thursday evening.

Arshad was off colour and was in the danger of missing out as his best throw was 76.99m but recovered well and qualified for the final with a big attempt of 85.28 metres.

India’s Sachin Yadav, too, has qualified for the final with a best attempt of 83.67 metres that helped him into the top-12 line-up for the final.

Former World Champion Anderson Peters of Granada registered the biggest throw of 89.53m, which was a season’s best to enter the final. Another big competitor Germany’s Julian Weber registered 87.21m. Kenya’s big star Julius Yego and Czech Republic’s Jakub Vadlejch are also in the mix.

In the last World Championships in Germany’s Budapest, Neeraj registered a throw of 88.17m to win gold. Arshad was second with a throw of (87.82m, while Vadlejch finished third with a best throw of 86.67m.

However, Arshad had the last laugh as he won the Olympic gold with a massive throw by obliterating the Olympic record with a throw of 92.97 metres. Neeraj had to settle for a silver medal with a best attempt of 89.45m, which was his sole valid attempt as he fouled his five other attempts.

Neeraj is attempting to become the third male javelin thrower to defend the World Championships gold. His current coach Jan Zelezny (1993, 1995) and Peters (2019, 2022) are the other two who have won the world championships title on two consecutive occasions.