Star javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra places second in the Doha Diamond League 2024 with a best throw of 88.36 meters.
Star javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra, the Olympic and world champion javelin thrower, finished second at the Doha Diamond League meeting on Friday, falling two centimeters shy of Jakub Vadlejch's winning throw of 88.36 meters.
Ankush Pandey
Star Indian javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra finished second in the Doha Diamond League on Friday with a best throw of 88.36 metres.
The Olympic and world champion was barely 2 centimeters shy of Jakub Vadlejch's winning throw of 88.38 meters, which took first place.
Throughout the entire competition, 26-year-old Chopra lagged behind veteran Vadlejch of the Czech Republic, who took home the title with a throw of 88.38 meters in the third round.
Chopra made a desperate attempt to win back the title he had won the year before, but his final round throw was 2 cm short of Vadlejch's mark.
With a best throw of 86.62 meters, two-time world champion Anderson Peters won the third sport.
After three throwing rounds, Kishore Jena was eliminated, ending his disappointing Diamond League debut with a best throw of 76.31 meters. He started with a 75.72-meter throw, fouled his second attempt, and finished ninth out of ten participants with a 76.31-meter throw.
Though he won a silver medal in the Hangzhou Asian Games last year with a personal best of 87.54 meters, Jena, 28, did not have a good day on Friday.In the two events where Chopra had won gold, Vadlejch had won bronze at the 2023 World Championships and silver at the Olympics in Tokyo.
With a throw of 88.67 meters, Chopra won the Doha Diamond League in 2023, ahead of Vadlejch (88.63 meters) and Peters (85.88 meters).
Competing in his first event of the season, Chopra failed to have a huge throw until his final attempt, which is ranked ninth best of his career. However, Vadlejch, 33, held on to win the title despite Chopra's lacklustre performance.
Chopra fouled in the first round, but he finished second behind Vadlejch with a second-round throw of 84.93. In the third round, the Indian got better, throwing 86.24 metres, his second best of the day, but Vadlejch maintained his lead with a throw of 88.38 metres.
Before throwing 88.38 meters in the final round, Chopra threw 86.18 and 82.28 meters in the previous two rounds.
Athletes were known for making huge throws at the Qatar Sports Club Stadium, but on Friday there was no tailwind.In the Diamond League, Chopra has won three straight legs and raised the champion's trophy in 2022.
Following this competition, Chopra will participate in the National Federation Cup Senior Athletics Championships, which will take place in Bhubaneswar from May 12 to May 15, his first home competition in three years.
Jena will be attending the event as well. The men's javelin qualifying round is scheduled for May 14 and the final for May 15, according to the schedule.
Chopra earned a gold medal with a throw of 87.80 meters on March 17, 2021, at the same Federation Cup, where he last competed domestically.Chopra will compete in the famous Paavo Nurmi Games in Turku, Finland, on June 18, following his participation in the home event.
Men's javelin will be a discipline at the next Diamond League meeting, which is scheduled for July 7 in Paris.
Athletes receive 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, or 1 point for placing first through eighth in each DL meeting. The top six javelin throwers will square off on September 13–14 in Brussels in the Diamond League Finals, with the victor taking home the DL champion's trophy.
