The one thing fans of Indian athletics were never in doubt about was Neeraj Chopra qualifying for the men's javelin throw final of the World Championships. All it took him was one throw to clear the automatic qualification mark of 84.50 metre in Tokyo on Wednesday.

The two-time Olympic medallist threw 84.85 metre in his first attempt in Group A of the qualification round to enter the final, to be held on Thursday. The 27-year-old will be joined by compatriot Sachin Yadav and 10 others, including Anderson Peters and Julian Weber, who threw an impressive 89.53 m and 87.21 m respectively. Pakistan's Olympic champion Arshad Nadeem has also made the cut.

Two other Indians, Rohit Yadav and Yashvir Singh, missed out after finishing 28th and 30th respectively, out of 37 competitors in the qualification rounds.

Chopra famously breached the 90-metre mark (90.23 m) in the Doha Diamond League in May and hit 88.16 m to be placed first in the Paris Diamond League earlier this year.

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Chopra threw 88.17 m to win gold in the previous edition in Budapest. Pakistan's Nadeem (87.82m) and Jakub Vadlejch (86.67m) secured silver and bronze respectively, back then.

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