Indian javelin thrower Devender Singh qualified for the World Championships in London with a stunning throw of 84.57 m that won him the gold medal at the Indian Grand Prix Athletics meet in Patiala on Sunday. Singh is only the second javelin thrower from the country qualify of the London Championships.
Singh’s personal best before this was 80.21 m, which he had achieved during last year’s IGP at Bengaluru. The Army Havaldar already holds the Inter-Services meet record, reported PTI. The minimum qualifying standard to qualify for the global meet is 83.00 m.
Neeraj Chopra, the World junior champion and record-holder, was the first Indian javelin thrower to qualify for the London Worlds when he threw 83.32 m at the Asian Grand Prix in Jiaxing ten days ago.
With this performance Devender Singh also became the 15th Indian to qualify for this year’s World Championships. Ten male and four female athletes have already made it through the new qualification system that was introduced last year.