Olympian Gold medalist Neeraj Chopra will compete in the javelin throw final of the Federation Cup athletics meet at the Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar, Odisha on Wednesday after a gap of three years.
Neeraj and Kishore Jena, both of whom have also secured Paris 2024 Olympic quotas for India, however will not compete in the qualification rounds on Tuesday.
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All nine javelin throwers who have crossed the 75m mark in their career before will not compete in the qualifying round on Tuesday and will compete directly in Wednesday’s final.
The remaining 15 contestants will be seen in action during Tuesday’s qualifiers. The top three from the qualifying round will advance .
Neeraj Chopra will be appearing in a domestic tournament in India for the first time since winning the gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021.
He did not compete in India in 2022 and 2023 as he was training or participating in competitions abroad.
The last time Neeraj competed in India was at the Federation Cup in March 2021. He won the gold with a throw of 87.80m back then.
A two-time Asian Games gold medallist, will be competing in his second competition of the 2024 outdoor athletics season. He started the year at the Doha Diamond League last week, finishing second with a throw of 88.36m.
The qualification criteria will also see Asian Athletics Championships silver medallist DP Manu compete directly in the finals. Former Asian Athletics Championships silver medallist Shivpal Singh will also be in action .
Barring the four, Pramod, Rohit Kumar, Uttam Patil, Kunwer Singh Rana and Manjinder Singh are the other five who were handed a direct berth into the men’s javelin throw final at the Federation Cup