Lausanne Diamond League: Neeraj Chopra ‘Happy’ with 2nd Place After Season-best 89.49m Throw, Says ‘Enjoyed the Fighting Spirit’
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Neeraj Chopra at Lausanne Diamond League (X)
Neeraj Chopra finished second in the Lausanne Diamond League as he recovered in time to produce a season’s best effort of 89.49m in his last attempt.
Neeraj Chopra, who won the silver medal at 2024 Paris Olympics, finished second in the Lausanne Diamond League with an 89.49m effort in his 6th and final throw at the event on Thursday. Grenada’s Anderson Peters with his 90.61m final throw and Germany’s Julian Weber with a best throw of 88.37m secured first and third spots respectively.
This was Chopra’s best throw of the season and his second-best ever. In Paris, he covered 89.45m.
Chopra was in fourth place till the end of the fourth round of throws until he managed to cover 85.58m in his fifth throw to burst into the top three and to proceed to the Diamond League 2024 final, slated to be held in Brussels next month.
The fourth spot was secured by Artur Felfner of Ukraine, whose best throw was 83.38m.
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“The feeling wasn’t great at first, but I’m happy with my throw, especially the second (career) best throw on my last attempt. It was a tough start, but the comeback was really nice and I enjoyed the fighting spirit I showed,” Chopra said after the event.
“Even though my early throws were around 80-83m, I pushed hard in the last two attempts finishing strong. Competing at this high level, it’s important to stay mentally tough and fight through.”
Earlier in the Paris Olympics, though Chopra couldn’t win gold, he still made history for India, becoming the second male and third overall to win back-to-back medals in the Olympics after wrestler Sushil Kumar who won a bronze and silver in the 2008 and 2012 Games. P.V. Sindhu is the other Indian to win medals in successive Olympics, silver in 2016 at Rio and bronze in Tokyo 2020.
In Paris, Chopra threw the javelin to 89.45m, a clear improvement on the 87.58m that bagged him the gold medal in Tokyo, but that did not prove enough for the reigning World Champion and Diamond League final winner as Pakistan’s Arshad Nadeem, his good friend in the sport, upstaged him by setting the Olympic record to win the gold medal with a monster heave of 92.97m.
(With inputs from Agencies)
