Javelin Throw, Men

A twitter poll before Tokyo asked who would win the men’s javelin throw and most people laughed at it, as Germany’s Johannes Vetter had dominated the event all year, winning all 10 of his meets, with seven of them with throws over 90 metres. He seemed unstoppable but it was not to be.

Perhaps the first sign of trouble came in qualifying as Vetter needed all three attempts to get past the automatic qualifier of 83.50. He threw 85.64 in round three, which was second in qualifying behind India’s Neeraj Chopra, who threw 86.65.

In round one, with the second throw of the final, India’s Chopra threw 87.03 to take the lead, as Vetter opened with only 82.52. He would not improve, fouling in rounds two and three, and was shockingly out of the final, finishing ninth. Chopra improved in round two with 87.58 but either of his first two efforts was good for the gold medal.

Behind Chopra, Czechs Jakub Vadlejch and Vítězslav Veselý would finish second and third, with Vadlejch moving up in round five with 86.67 to claim the silver medal. Veselý had also won bronze at the 2012 Olympics and was the 2013 World Champion and 2012 European Champion, but he was not on any form charts coming into Tokyo. Vadlejch had likewise not been in the list of medal contenders, his best efforts coming back in 2017 when he won silver at the World Championships.

Chopra’s gold medal was the first ever in athletics for India and the first Olympic medal in athletics by an Indian since Norman Pritchard’s two silver medals in the 200 and 200 hurdles at the 1900 Paris Olympics.