Neeraj Chopra looks to maintain winning streak at Diamond League after World Championships
Neeraj Chopra, the recently crowned world champion, will participate in the men's javelin throw on Thursday and would hope to keep his perfect record intact in the coveted Diamond League tournament. Chopra won his first World Championships gold on Sunday in Budapest with a throw of 88.17 metres.
In addition, the Indian superstar joined Andreas Thorkildsen of Norway and Jan Zelezny of the Czech Republic as the only other javelin throwers in history to hold both the Olympic and World Championships golds at the same time.
In addition to winning the World Championships in 1993, 1995, and 2001, Zelezny won the Olympic gold medal in 1992, 1996, and 2000. At the 2008 Olympic Games and the 2009 World Championships, Thorkildsen took home the gold medal. Prior to his victory at the World Championships, the 25-year-old Chopra won two Diamond League contests in Doha (May 5) and Lausanne (June 30).
Chopra will face off against well-known opponents in Zurich, where he is competing four days after being elected world champion, including Julian Weber of Germany, Jakub Vadlejch of the Czech Republic, and two-time world champion Anderson Peters of Grenada. Vadlejch won bronze in Budapest with 86.67m.
Only Arshad Nadeem of Pakistan, who won the silver medal in Budapest, won't be in Zurich.
Chopra, who took home the Diamond League championship trophy in 2022, is in third place with 16 points after two competitions. The top two finishers are Vadlejch (21 points from three events) and Weber (19 points from three events), who tied for fourth in Budapest with 85.79m.
Before the season finale in Eugene, Oregon, on September 16–17, when the Diamond League winner will be crowned, the men's javelin throw event is scheduled for the penultimate leg of the Diamond League series in Zurich. In Eugene, only the top six finishers will participate. Chopra took home the victory in the Zurich-based 2022 championship.
Murali Sreeshankar, a long jumper, will also be competing and will be attempting to atone for his failure to get to the World Championships final round. With a personal best of 8.41m in Sreeshankar's name, he finished the qualification round in 22nd place overall by clearing a below-average 7.74m. With 10 points from two competitions, he is presently third in the Diamond League long jump rankings.
Miltiadis Tentoglou (Greece), a world and Olympic champion, Tajay Gayle, and Carey McLeod, both from Jamaica, will also compete. With an 8.27-meter leap, Gayle had captured silver in Budapest.