Hyderabad: India's medal hopeful in the 2020 Tokyo Games, Neeraj Chopra, on Tuesday qualified for the Olympics with a throw of 87.86m at Athletics Central North East meeting at Kenneth McArthur Stadium in South Africa.
This was Neeraj's first competitive event after recovering from an elbow injury.
The Athletics Federation of India said that they’ve confirmed with the South Africa federation that it is a ‘recognised international meet’ so the Olympic cut has been made.
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🚨Neeraj Chopra qualified for #tokyo2020 🚨@Neeraj_chopra1 qualified for Tokyo 2020 Olympics with a throw of 87.86m in southafrica 🇿🇦 today.
— INDIAN ATHLETES (@indian_athletes) January 28, 2020 " class="align-text-top noRightClick twitterSection" data="
Congratulations @Neeraj_chopra1👏👏👏 #ProudMoment #javelinthrow pic.twitter.com/AJaiD8oG5x
">🚨Neeraj Chopra qualified for #tokyo2020 🚨@Neeraj_chopra1 qualified for Tokyo 2020 Olympics with a throw of 87.86m in southafrica 🇿🇦 today.
— INDIAN ATHLETES (@indian_athletes) January 28, 2020
Congratulations @Neeraj_chopra1👏👏👏 #ProudMoment #javelinthrow pic.twitter.com/AJaiD8oG5x🚨Neeraj Chopra qualified for #tokyo2020 🚨@Neeraj_chopra1 qualified for Tokyo 2020 Olympics with a throw of 87.86m in southafrica 🇿🇦 today.
— INDIAN ATHLETES (@indian_athletes) January 28, 2020
Congratulations @Neeraj_chopra1👏👏👏 #ProudMoment #javelinthrow pic.twitter.com/AJaiD8oG5x
"Neeraj Chopra qualified for #tokyo2020 @Neeraj_chopra1 qualified for Tokyo 2020 Olympics with a throw of 87.86m in SouthAfrica 🇿🇦 today. Congratulations @Neeraj_chopra1 #ProudMoment #javelinthrow," Indian athletes tweeted.
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Neeraj Chopra is back with a bang. He throws 87.86 at an event in Potchefstroom. Thanks to @afiindia for this detailed result pic. #IndianAthletics pic.twitter.com/hxNeyxsjCL
— Rahul Bhutani (@BhutaniRahul) January 28, 2020 " class="align-text-top noRightClick twitterSection" data="
">Neeraj Chopra is back with a bang. He throws 87.86 at an event in Potchefstroom. Thanks to @afiindia for this detailed result pic. #IndianAthletics pic.twitter.com/hxNeyxsjCL
— Rahul Bhutani (@BhutaniRahul) January 28, 2020Neeraj Chopra is back with a bang. He throws 87.86 at an event in Potchefstroom. Thanks to @afiindia for this detailed result pic. #IndianAthletics pic.twitter.com/hxNeyxsjCL
— Rahul Bhutani (@BhutaniRahul) January 28, 2020
"Neeraj Chopra is back with a bang. He throws 87.86 at an event in Potchefstroom. Thanks to @afiindia for this detailed result pic. #IndianAthletics," Indian journalist Rahul Bhutani tweeted.
Apart from Neeraj, there were four more participants in the event, which included India's Rohit Yadav who aimed the second spot with a best throw of 77.61m. While the other three participants were all from France and could not even breach the 70m mark in the event at the Kenneth McArthur Stadium in South Africa.
Neeraj'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 the 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.
