Arshad Nadeem cruised to the Olympic javelin final with a solid 86.59m throw in Tuesday’s qualifier round at Stade de France, keeping the nation’s hopes for an Olympic medal well and alive.
His season best throw, the first and only of the qualifier, currently keeps him at fourth position heading into Thursday’s night finals.
Reigning Olympic and world champion India’s Neeraj Chopra leads the field with a massive 89.34m throw, also a season best.
Grenada’s Anderson Peters joined his South Asian counterparts in the finals with an 88.63m first attempt, ranking second in the day’s throws so far.
Brazil’s Luiz Maurício da Silva also made it through to the final with a 85.91m throw.
Four athletes from the Group A qualification round have already advanced.
Germany’s Julian Weber leads the Group A field with a strong 87.76m throw. The reigning European Games champion’s one and only throw was enough to comfortably get him through the final.
Julius Yego, who took home silver for Kenya at the Rio 2016 Olympics, has the second best throw of the day so far with a season’s best throw of 85.97m.
Jakub Vadlejch’s lone 85.63m attempt landed an easy third place spot for the current world number 1 from Czechia.
Finland’s Toni Keranen’s got off to a flying start at his Olympic debut with 85.27m throw — a personal and season best.
