Davinder makes history, enters World Championships final

New Delhi, Aug 11: Davinder Sing Kang throws himself into history as he qualifies for the finals of Javelin Throw at the IAAF World Championships in London 2017 on Thursday. In his third and last attempt there came the throw of 84.22m, thus becoming the only Indian athlete to qualify for the finals of an event at the competition so far and first ever to do so in javelin throw discipline from India.

The 28-year-old, who has a personal best of 84.57m, was consistent throughout his three attempts and began his challenge with an 82.22m throw. He followed it up with an 82.14m attempt before going for the huge 84.22m that resulted in his qualification and took an overall 7th position. The automatic qualification mark for the championships was 83m.

It was in May this year that Kang hit headlines as he broke his personal best and threw the javelin a whopping 84.57m in the Indian Grand Prix in Patiala, clinching gold as well as a spot in the World Championships.

Earlier in the Group A qualification, Asian champion Neeraj Chopra, who was the biggest hope of India at the World Championships missed out by a small fraction as he came as close as 82.26m in his first attempt. Much to the disappointment of everyone he fouled in his second attempt and an average throw of 80.54m does put him on the waiting list for the results of Group B. The junior world record holder with a personal best of 86.48m and a season best of 85.63m at the recently concluded Asian Athletics Championships was out thrown by the Group B athletes, as many as eight throwers crossed the automatic qualification mark of 83m and five from Group A bringing the 19 year old’s London campaign to an end in the 15th position.

But it was 2017 World Leader Johannes Vetter of Germany was the star of the event as he launched the Javelin a massive 91.20m on his first attempt and the only one to smash the 90m mark.

The finals of the event will take place at the iconic Olympic Stadium of London on Saturday.