Men Javelin Throw Athletics XXII Olympic Games Tokyo, Japan 2020 - Wednesday, 4th August - Saturday, 7th August 2021 - Gold Medal: Neeraj Chopra, India
Start 20:00 T 28°C H 81% Overcast. Finish 21:09 T 28°C H 84% Overcast
Venue: New National Stadium, Tokyo. Quota: 35 competitors from 25 nations. Qualifiyng Standard: 85.00m. Qualification. Qualifying.
World Record: Jan Železný (CZE) 98.48m Jena, Germany 25 May 1996
Olympic Record: Andreas Thorkildsen (NOR) 90.57m Beijing, China 23 August 2008
Defending champion Thomas Röhler's results fell off back in 2019. He was not back to defend his title out of a strong German team. Silver medalist Julius Yego and bronze medalist Keshorn Walcott were back. 2019 World Champion Anderson Peters was also here, but the top thrower since the last Olympics was 2017 World Champion Johannes Vetter, who had the seven best throws of the year and an outlandish 97.76m in the COVID shortened 2020 season, which placed him 2nd in history. Two of his early season 2021 throws could also claim the same position had he not thrown 97.76. The next best thrower of the season was Marcin Krukowski. 2017 silver medalist Jakub Vadlejch was in the mix of challengers behind Vetter.Three got automatic qualifiers in their first attempts. Neeraj Chopra, Lassi Etelätalo and Julian Weber. Vetter and Vadlejch took three attempts just to make a qualifier. Yego, Walcott, Peters and Krukowski did not make the final.On the second throw of the competition, Chopra launched 87.07 to take the early lead. Weber threw 85.30 to move into second place. Vadlejch threw 83.98 to sit in third place. In the second round, Chopra extended his lead with a 87.58m (287ft 4in), which proved to be the winner. No other thrower came close to 82m in the second round. The third round had to settle who got three more throws. At the beginning of the round, Veselý was the #8 qualifier at 80.30m. Andrian Mardare improved his position with 82.84m then Veselý threw 85.44m to take over second place and pushing everyone else down. Lassi Etelätalo moved up with 83.28m. Vetter came up in 7th place off of his first round 82.58m and remained there after he threw barely over 75m and deliberately fouled. 8th place Arshad Nadeem came up and improved his mark to 84.62m. And the last thrower in the round, Aliaksei Katkavets landed his 83.71m away. The overwhelming number one thrower in the world was gone, he would get no more throws to challenge Chopra or the others. Nobody was able to im