Neeraj Chopra has qualified for the final of the Olympic javelin event with an immense throw of 89.34m. One and done and into the final (on August 8) he goes.
It was his season's best throw and he looked in peak form, allaying any fears of injury, however minor, hitting top speed with his run-up and screaming at the javelin in his trademark style before turning with a small smile and both hands raised in the air.
At first glance, it looked like Neeraj wasn't too happy with the throw, but that body language quickly changed when he realised how far down the field the javelin landed, well beyond the 84m automatic qualification mark.
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Pakistan's Arshad Nadeem repeated the duo's trick by qualifying in his first attempt, hitting 86.59m in an almost casual manner to make it three automatic qualifiers in group B.
From the same group, Mauricio Luiz de Silva of Brazil also made it to the final with a best throw 85.91 in his third attempt.
Earlier, in group A qualification, Julian Weber and Jakub Valdlejch also made the cut with their first throws of 87.76m and 85.63m respectively.
India's Kishore Kumar Jena had a disappointing outing with throws of 80.73m, foul, 80.21. That was good enough only for 9th in his group and 18th overall, outside the placings that would make the final.
The story of the day from group A, though, was Rio Olympics silver medallist Julius Yego of Kenya hitting his best mark (by far) in five years as he qualified automatically with a throw of 85.97m
Toni Keranen, who burst onto the global stage finishing second to Neeraj in the Paavo Nurmi Games earlier this year hit a personal best 85.27m to join the automatic qualifiers from Group A (four of them).
Max Dehning, thrower of the world leading mark of 90.20m, could only throw a best of 75.10m.
With Neeraj and his main competitors all looking in peak form (six of the athletes including Neeraj hit season's best), this should make for a cracking final on August 8 at 11:55 PM.