World Athletics Championships 2025: Neeraj Chopra fails to defend title, Sachin Yadav finishes fourth

Pakistan's Olympic champion Arshad Nadeem also made an early exit as the much expected between the showdown between the star duo did not happen.

Reigning champion Neeraj Chopra failed to defend his javelin throw title after being eliminated after four throws in the World Athletics Championship in Tokyo.

The 27-year-old managed a best effort of 84.03M that left him eighth in overall standings after the fourth throw and fouled the fifth one to exit the competition.

Only the top six athletes competed in the sixth and final round.

Olympic champion Arshad Nadeem of Pakistan also made an early exit in the fourth round as the much expected between the showdown between the star duo did not happen.

Another Indian -- Sachin Yadav -- proved to be the surprise package by finishing fourth with his personal best effort of 86.27M.

In the last edition of the World Championships in 2023 in Budapest, Neeraj had thrown 88.17M en route to clinching the gold medal.

Recently, he breached the coveted 90M mark with a 90.23m throw at the Doha Diamond League.

After qualifying easily for the finals, Neeraj was hoping to become the third male javelin thrower in history to defend title.

Czech legend Jan Zelezny (1993, 1995), who is now Neeraj's coach, and Anderson Peters (2019, 2022) of Grenada are the other two who have won the world championships crown on two consecutive occasions.

But at Japan National Stadium on Thursday (the same arena where the Indian won the Olympic gold to script history in 2021), he just could not replicate his Budapest heroics.

The two-time Olympic medallist, began with 83.65M which put him at fifth place and improved upon it with 84.03M before fouling his third throw.

He dropped to eighth after the second round and remained there at the halfway stage.

His fourth throw measured 82.86M, which meant that he had to better 85.54M and Kenya's Julius Yego in his fifth throw to remain in competition.

But Neeraj fouled his fifth attempt to end the day in disappointment.

After releasing his spear, he fell down sideways and crossed the curved line to see the red flag from the official. He removed his waist belt and buried his face in it for a while before regaining composure.

Known for his consistency, it was inexplicable for Neeraj not to even cross the 85M mark in five attempts. Before Thursday, his worst was 82.27M while winning gold at the Federation Cup in May 2024.

Trinidad & Tobago’s Keshorn Walcott won the gold with an effort of 88.16M.

Grenada's two-time world champion Anderson Peters claimed silver with his second-round throw of 87.38M and USA’s Curtis Thompson earned a surprise bronze with 86.67M.

(with agencies/World Athletics Media inputs)