Neeraj Chopra in action© AFP
Olympic champion javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra kicked off his Diamond League title defense with an easy win in his season opener here on Friday, with the world’s best attempt and coming in at No. private in career. The 25-year-old Chopra, who pocketed the Diamond League Final 2022 trophy in Switzerland last September, beat a star-studded field with a best throw of 88.67m to start the season in form. . Chopra hit the mark on his first attempt with a world-leading 88.67m throw, the fourth-best attempt of his career to propel himself to the top. He maintained his lead until the end to win the event in his second appearance at the Qatar Sports Club.
He finished fourth in his first appearance here in 2018.
Silver medalist Jakub Vadlejch of the Czech Republic came very close to Chopra’s best with a second-round throw of 88.63m, four centimeters short of the Indian’s attempt.
Vadlejch also won a silver medal at the Tokyo Olympics. He also won a silver medal at the Doha Diamond League last year with a 90.88m throw.
Defending world champion Anderson Peters, who won the event last year with a monster throw of 93.07m, finished third with a modest best of 85.88m.
Chopra, who has a personal best of 89.94m, was unable to maintain the tempo of the first try as he could only take the spear to 86.04m then 85.47m before fouling in fourth throw. He achieved 84.37m and 85.62m in his fifth and sixth attempts.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and was automatically generated from the aggregate feed.)
Topics covered in this article
