India, Sept. 17 -- Neeraj Chopra remains in the hunt to become only the third male javelin thrower in history to defend a World Championships gold after qualifying for the final in Tokyo on Wednesday. The defending champion, who won in Budapest in 2023 and entered with a wild card, secured his spot with a first-attempt throw of 84.85m.

Neeraj, placed in Group A of the qualifiers, needed to cross the 84.5m mark for automatic qualification, and the 27-year-old did with his first throw, just like he did at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 at the very same stadium.

Recently-crowned Diamond League champion, Julian Weber of Germany, was up next, but failed to get past the qualification mark after his first attempt throw of 82.29m, but made it throu...