Devender Singh became the second javelin thrower from the country to book a ticket for World championships in London with a stunning throw of 84.57m which won him a gold medal at the Indian Grand Prix Athletics meet.
The Army Havaldar, already holding the Inter-Services meet record, entered the first leg of Indian Grand Prix (IGP) this evening with a personal best of 80.21m which he achieved during last year’s IGP at Bengaluru.
World junior champion and record-holder Neeraj Chopra was the first Indian javelin thrower to qualify for the London Worlds during his outing for Asian Grand Prix in Jiaxing ten days ago with an 83.32m mark. The qualifying norms for the global meet stands at 83.00 metres.
With today’s performance Devender Singh became the 15th Indian to qualify for this year’s World championships. As much as 10 men and 4 women have already made it through a complex qualification system that was in force from last year onwards.