Rare miss for Neeraj Chopra, Olympic gold medalist misses out on medal at World Athletics Championships

TOKYO: India's Neeraj Chopra stumbled in the World Athletics Championship final, finishing in eighth spot and thus losing a medal. Pakistan's Olympic champion Arshad Nadeem also failed to win a medal. It is rare for Neeraj to end an event without winning a medal. The Olympic gold winner’s fifth throw turned out to be a foul, which ended up as a setback for India. Neeraj's best distance in the final was 84.03 meters.

Despite the big disappointment, India’s Sachin Yadav finished fourth in the tournament and missed a medal by a wafer-thin margin. For Neeraj, this will be the first major tournament without a medal after the Tokyo Olympics in 2021. In the final, Trinidad and Tobago's Keshorn Walcott won the gold with a throw of 88.16 meters.

Grenadian javelin thrower Anderson Peters MBE won silver with a throw of 87.38 meters, and the USA's Curtis Thompson won bronze with a throw of 86.67 meters. Neeraj, who competed in Group A in the qualification round yesterday, threw the javelin to a distance of 84.85 meters in his first attempt and made it to the final. The qualifying mark for the final was 84.50 meters. Neeraj had secured the final in his first attempt in the qualification round at the 2023 World Championships and the Paris Olympics.