DPA

Paris

Tokyo and world champion Neeraj Chopra threw down the gauntlet to his rivals as well as the javelin as he topped the Olympic heats with a season’s best of 89.34 metres on Tuesday.

Ahead of Thursday’s final, the Indian impressed along with big rival Arshad Nadeem of Pakistan (86.59m), Grenada’s 2022 world champion Anderson Peters (88.63m) and German Julian Weber (87.76m). Trinidad’s Keshorn Walcott, the 2012 champion, just squeezed through.

"It was a good throw. Maybe the biggest ever in qualifying for me.

All the throwers look in good shape. The final will be a really good competition for sure,” Chopra said.

"I want to set an example for other Indian athletes so that we can compete here with the best countries in athletics.”

Spanovic shock

Germany’s Tokyo long jump champion Malaika Mihambo - recovered from coronavirus - left it late but qualified third with 6.86m in the women’s heats, which were topped by American world silver medallist Tara David Woodhall with 6.90m.

Italian Larissa Iapichino, daughter of twice Olympic silver medallist Fiona May, jumped the second furthest with 6.87m ahead of Thursday’s final. But world champion Ivana Spanovic of Serbia was eliminated in 16th place despite posting a season’s best 6.51m. She has suffered with an ankle problem this year.

Ethiopian Gudaf Tsegay was quickest in qualifying for the women’s 1,500 metres with 3 minutes 58.84 seconds just ahead on Britain’s Tokyo silver medallist Laura Muir.

Tokyo champion, world champion and world record holder Faith Kipyegon of Kenya was way down the timesheets but still got through.

Mixed repechage results

In the men’s 110m hurdles repechage, American Freddie Crittenden topped the standings to qualify for Wednesday’s semi-finals after all.

Crittenden was injured for Sunday’s heats but decided to use the new Olympic repechage rules to his advantage. He jogged his heat, making sure he crossed the line and therefore received another chance without doing himself more damage.

The injury-prone 30-year-old, fourth in last year’s world championships, looked back to full health in Tuesday’s repechage as he clocked 13.42 secs.

There was less luck in the women’s 400m repechage for Bahama’s twice Olympic champion Shaunae Miller-Uibo. She pulled up in the heats on Monday and it was thought she could therefore not run in the repechage. But organizers gave her another chance, only for the 30-year-old to finish last and fail to qualify for Wednesday’s final.