India’s javelin thrower Shivpal Singh qualified for the Olympic Games for the first time by achieving the qualifying level of the Tokyo Olympic Games during a competition in South Africa. 24-year-old Shivpal is the second javelin thrower from India to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics after star thrower Neeraj Chopra.
Shivpal won the gold medal as he hurled the spear to a distance of 85.47 meters in his fifth attempt during the ACNW Meeting at the MacArthur Stadium on Tuesday. In doing so the 24-year-old breached the Olympics qualifying standard of 85 meters to book a berth for the summer sports extravaganza to be held in Japan’s capital city Tokyo. Sports Minister took to twitter to wish Shivpal on his achievement.
Good news from track and field as #ShivpalSingh qualifies for #Tokyo2020 in men’s javelin throw after an effort of 85.47m at the ACNW League Meeting in South Africa. Qualification mark was 85m. Congratulations Shival! pic.twitter.com/vIcuGUbyNg
— Kiren Rijiju (@KirenRijiju) March 10, 2020
Rijiju Tweeted, “Good news from track and field as #ShivpalSingh qualifies for #Tokyo2020 in men’s javelin throw after an effort of 85.47m at the ACNW League Meeting in South Africa. Qualification mark was 85m. Congratulations Shival!”
Another Indian Akshdeep Singh finished third with his best effort of 75 meters. Shivpal will now represent India in this event along with Neeraj Chopra in Tokyo Olympics 2020.
Earlier in January, after returning from injury, India’s star player Neeraj Chopra made it to the Tokyo Games with an effort of 87.86 meters in the ACNW League itself. Both Chopra and Shivpal are training here.
Shivpal’s personal best is 86.23 meters which he achieved while winning the silver medal at the Asian Championships in Doha held in 2019. Shivpal had also represented the country in the prestigious Diamond League meeting held in the Oslo leg (Norway) in 2019. He had managed to finish eighth with a throw of 80.87m.
National record holder Anu Rani also won the gold medal with 61.15 meters effort in her first event of the year in women’s javelin throw. However, her performance was far below the qualifying level of the 64-meter Tokyo Olympics.
In the track and field events so far, men’s national record holder 20km race walker KT Irfan, Avinash Sable (men’s 3000m steeplechase) and the country’s mixed 4x400m relay team have qualified for the Tokyo Olympics other than Shivpal and Chopra.
