Indian athlete Neeraj Chopra reached the final of the men’s javelin throw event at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics on Wednesday. With a massive throw of 86.65m, Neeraj kept India’s hopes of an elusive Olympic medal from track and field events alive. Owing to his throw, he directly qualified for the final as he topped Group A.

Watch the video of this throw here:

Neeraj, 23, competing in his first Olympics, put up a display that will go down as one of the best performances by an Indian in the Olympics.

He finished ahead of 2017 World Champion and gold-medal favourite Johannes Vetter of Germany.

Vetter, 28, came into the Olympics riding on the back of seven gargantuan throws of 90m-plus between April and June. Ahead of the Summer Games, he claimed that Neeraj will find it difficult to beat him.

Finland’s Lassi Etelatalo also advanced to the final as an automatic qualifier with a first-round throw of 84.50m.

Those who touch 83.50m mark or the 12 best performers qualify for the final on Saturday.

Neeraj is a farmer’s son from Khandra village near Panipat in Haryana. As per a PTI report, he took athletics to shed a flab on his body.

The Indian athletics contingent, including Athletics Federation of India (AFI) president Adille Sumariwalla and Klaus Bartonietz, the bio-mechanics expert in charge of Chopra, were cheering from the almost empty stands.

This was Neeraj’s seventh-best throw and third best of the season 2021. The earlier six best throws are 88.07m (March 2021; Indian GP-3), 88.06m (2018, Asian Games), 87.87m (January 2020; ACNW Meeting in South Africa), 87.80m (March 2021; Federation Cup), 87.43m (May 2018, Doha Diamond League) and 86.79 (June 2021; Kuortane Games in Finland).

He is the reigning Asian Games and Commonwealth Games gold medallist. However, in the run-up to the Games, he has gotten only a few opportunities to practice as he participated in only three international events.

Out of the three international events only one – Kuortane Games in Finland – was a top-class event where Vetter returned with a gold medal.