World Athletics Championships Day 7: Big day for India as Neeraj Chopra, Rohit Yadav, Eldhose Paul qualify for finals

New Delhi: Day 7 at the World Athletics Championship in Oregon brought immense joy for India. Olympic medallist and India’s ace javelin thrower, Neeraj Chopra, qualified for the finals for the first time. Along with Chopra, 21-year-old Rohit Yadav also qualified for the finals in Men’s Javelin Throw. If this was not enough, Eldhose Paul became India’s first ever triple jumper to make it to the finals in Men’s Triple Jump at World Championships, with a jump of 16.68 m.

Men’s Javelin Throw

Champion @Neeraj_chopra1 makes his journey to the Final of @WCHoregon22 quick & with ease ??

Neeraj qualified for the Final on his very 1st attempt – 88.39m

He wants one & done ✅️#IndianAthletics@PMOIndia @ianuragthakur @NisithPramanik @afiindia @SAI_Patiala @Adille1 pic.twitter.com/KBHQbXxiPR

— SAI Media (@Media_SAI) July 22, 2022

Neeraj Chopra was the first thrower in group A of the qualification round. He qualified for the finals in his first attempt of 88.39 m. It will, surprisingly, be the first finals for the Olympic gold medallist as he failed to do so in 2017 and was injured during the 2019 championships in Doha. He stood second in the overall qualification rankings as Anderson Peters threw the spear at a distance of 89.91 m. Another one of Chopra’s arch rivals, Julian Weber threw for 87.28 m to stand at third position.

Rohit Yadav qualified with his best throw of 80.42 m. However, he did not meet the qualification mark of 83.50 m but managed to finish 11th and qualify ahead. His first attempt went for 80.42 m, while his second attempt was a foul and the third one went at a distance of 77.32 m.

Neeraj and Rohit will play the finals on Day 9 of the event.

Men’s Triple Jump

Though Eldhose Paul did not meet the qualification mark of 17.05 m, he jumped 16.68 m to stand at the 12th position and be the last man to qualify for the finals. India had three triple jumpers playing in the qualification round, namely, Eldhose Pual, Praveen Chithravel and Abdulla Aboobacker.

Paul started off with a jump of 16.12 m, while Pedro Pichardo and China’s Yaming Zhu jumped over the qualification mark with a jump of 17.16 m and 17.08 m respectively. On the other hand, Chithravel playing in the same group as Paul, crossed the starting line to make an illegal jump. In group B, Aboobacker jumped 15.92 m in his first attempt.

In the second attempt, Paul jumped to make history for India, while Chithravel jumped 16.30 m and Aboobacker made an improvement to jump 16.45 m. In the final attempt, Paul, Chithravel and Aboobacker jumped 16.34 m, 16.49 m and 16.44 m respectively.

Women’s 200 m Finals

Sherika Jackson broke the Championship Record by running the half-lap in 21.45 seconds and took home the gold medal. Four days back, she also won a silver in the 100 m category. Her fellow Jamaican and star sprinter Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, after winning the gold in 100 m, won the silver medal on day 7 by clocking 21.81 seconds. The bronze went to Britain’s Dina Asher-Smith as she clocked 22.02 seconds.

Men’s 200 m Finals

Back-to-back world 200m champion ✔️
North American record (19.31) ✔️@LylesNoah ??, take a bow ?#WorldAthleticsChamps pic.twitter.com/SwJYna46jc

— World Athletics (@WorldAthletics) July 22, 2022

Like the 100 m category, all three medals went to the USA in the Men’s 200 m finals. Noah Lyles became the world leader this season with a timing of 19.31 seconds to win the gold. He became the first athlete in the 200 m category to defend his title thrice. His fellow countrymates Kenneth Bednarek and Erriyon Knighton won the silver and bronze respectively.