Paris: India’s Kishore Jena Tuesday finished ninth in the men’s javelin throw Group A qualification round with an underwhelming throw of 80.73m, which left him on the verge of making an early exit from the Olympics.
Jena will await the result of Group B qualification round where superstar Neeraj Chopra will begin his campaign later in the day.
All those who throw 84m or above, or at least 12 best performers from Group A and B combined will advance to the final to be held on Thursday.
Jena’s opening throw was 80.73m, and he fouled his second attempt before coming up with 80.21m in his last effort.
Julian Weber of Germany topped Group A with a first round throw of 87.76m while former world champion Julius Yego (85.97m) of Kenya and Tokyo Olympics silver medallist Jakub Vadlejch (85.63m) of Czech Republic were second and third respectively.
Toni Keranen (85.27m) of Finland was the fourth athlete to go past the automatic qualification mark of 84m.
Jena had booked an automatic Olympics berth with his 87.54m throw for a silver medal in the Asian Games in October last year.
After that, he crossed the 80m mark in just one out of six competitions before Tuesday.
PTI