Indus Valley Times

NEW DELHI,JULY 1: Neeraj Chopra won his second successive Diamond League by finishing first at Lausanne. Neeraj’s best attempt of 87.66m helped him clinch the top spot.

Neeraj started off with a no mark on his first attempt. He then went on to throw a distance of 83.52m on his second attempt. However, it was the third attempt of 85.04m that took him up to second place in the standings. Neeraj registered another no mark on his fourth attempt, before throwing 87.66m to move all the way to the top of the pile.

Neeraj faced stiff competition from Germany’s Julian Weber, who took an early lead following an 86.20m throw on the first attempt, and even came close to going past the Indian in his final attempt, throwing 87.03m.

Neeraj is warming up to the Asian Games and the World Athletics Championship with a terrific start to his season. The Tokyo Olympics gold medalist has been establishing his dominance over the rest of the men’s javelin field with consistent performances.

Neeraj began the year by winning the Doha Diamond League with a throw of 88.67m. The 25-year-old pulled out of the FBK Games on June 4 at Hengelo (the Netherlands) and Paavo Nurmi Games in Turku, Finland on June 13 with a muscle strain, but he returned in time to take part in Lausanne Diamond League.

Neeraj is focusing on keeping himself fit ahead of a crucial 12-month period in which he will be defending his Asian Games crown and the Olympic gold medal.

The Indian javelin star had spoken about breaching the 90m mark in 2023 while highlighting that he is not under pressure to achieve the milestone. Neeraj has a personal best of 89.94 when he finished second best world champion Anderson Peters at the Stockholm Diamond League.

Having made a strong start to the 2023 season, Neeraj would be hoping to replicate the form that he showed in 2022. Neeraj made a comeback after suffering a muscle strain during training last month due to which he withdrew from the FBK Games in the Netherlands on June 4 and the Paavo Nurmi Games in Finland on June 13.

Neeraj won a silver at the World Athletics Championships in Eugene last year after which he finished first at Lausanne Diamond League with a best effort of 89.08m to qualify for the Diamond League final.

In the Diamond League final in Zurich in September, Neeraj became the first Indian athlete to win the Diamond Trophy as he finished on the top step of the podium with a best effort of 88.44m.

Meanwhile, Murali Sreeshankar could not finish on the podium, coming in fifth in the Long Jump event at the Lausanne Diamond League. The Indian started off with a 7.75m jump on his first attempt. He then registered a 7.63m jump, before jumping 7.88m to move into the top-three.

However, better jumps from Switzerland’s Simon Ehammer and Japan’s Yuki Hashioka put him down the pecking order. His fourth and fifth attempts saw him jump 7.59m and 7.66m respectively, which wasn’t enough for him to break into the top-three. LaQuan Nairn of the Bahamas finished first with an 8.11m jump.

-The India Today