Two weeks after winning a historic silver medal at the Paris Olympics, star Indian javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra will again compete in the Lausanne Diamond League meet on Thursday and try to regain the season-ending Diamond League trophy next month. Neeraj, who has been suffering from a groin injury for a long time, won the silver medal at the Paris Olympics on August 8 with a throw of 89.45 meters. He won a historic gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics three years ago.
Two-time Olympic medallist Neeraj, 26, had on Saturday confirmed his participation in the Diamond League competition in Lausanne, due to which a decision on his surgery will now be taken after the end of the season. Neeraj was the Diamond League champion in 2022 and finished second to Jakub Vadlech of the Czech Republic in the ‘winner-take-all’ Diamond League final in Eugene, USA last year.
The current season’s Diamond League Final will be held in Brussels on September 14. To qualify for the final, he has to be in the top six in the Diamond League Meeting Series table. Another Diamond League event is scheduled in Zurich on September 5, which also includes the men’s javelin throw event. He is in fourth place with seven points after finishing second behind Wadlech in the Doha Diamond League on May 10.
After the Olympic final on August 8, Neeraj started training in Switzerland and is determined to end the season on a high despite the injury problem. “I came to Switzerland to train before the Diamond League. Luckily my injury did not become serious because I took extra care of it,” Neeraj had said last week.
He said, “I thought of continuing my season like most other athletes. There is still a month left for the season to end. I will go to the doctors in my free time.” Neeraj will compete with top players in Lausanne, including five players who made it to the top six in the Paris Olympics final. Only Pakistan’s Arshad Nadeem is not participating in this competition, who surprised the athletics world by winning the gold medal with an Olympic record throw of 92.97 meters. Nadeem finished fourth in the Paris Diamond League on July 7 with a throw of 84.21 meters.
This was the only Diamond League event as well as the only tournament other than the Olympics that Nadeem took part in this season. He is sixth in the table with five points. Wadlech, who finished fourth in Paris with a throw of 88.50m after winning a silver medal in Tokyo, will look to put up a better show to defend his Diamond League title. Two-time world champion Anderson Peters of Grenada has come good after a poor showing last season and is capable of long throws. He won a bronze medal at the Paris Olympics with 88.54m and has already crossed the 90m mark in his career.
