Ace javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra has qualified for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics with a throw of 87.86m at the Athletics Central North East meeting in South Africa. This was Chopra's first competitive event after recovering from the injury.Neeraj Chopra's last major international competition was the 2018 Jakarta Asian Games last August where he won gold with a national record of 88.06m. The elbow injury had forced Neeraj to miss competitive action for most part of 2019.
He was expected to participate in the National Open Athletics Championship late last year, but the AFI decided to allow Neeraj more time to get competition ready.Speaking about his qualification, Neeraj said, "I'm happy with the result as I went in to the competition with THE mindset to warm up for the season. Once I did well with the first three throws (all being above 80m), I decided to push a bit harder in the fourth attempt," said Neeraj. Another Indian in the fray Rohit Yadav threw 77.61m. JSW Sports, which manages Chopra also confirmed Chopra's qualification in a tweet.