World Champion and Olympic gold medalist Neeraj Chopra secured the second position in the men’s javelin throw event with the best throw of 85.71 m at Zurich in early hours of Friday.
Chopra, who had recently won India’s first-ever gold at the World Athletics Championships, failed to defend his Diamond League title, falling just short of Czech Republic’s Jakub Vadlejch (85.86 m), who took home the trophy. Germany’s Julian Weber got the third position with the best throw of 85.04 m.
Neeraj started the first attempt with a throw of 80.79 metre. Edis Matusevičius of Lithuania took the lead with a throw of 81.62 m. Edis ended the first round with a lead.
In the second attempt, Czech Republic’s Jakub Vadlejch threw a solid 83.46 m, dropping Edis and Neeraj one spot down each. Neeraj’s second attempt was a foul, keeping him at number three. Then, Germany’s Julian Weber struck a throw of 84.75 m. Neeraj as a result, dropped down to number 5. Weber ended the round two with a lead and Neeraj was at number five.
Neeraj’s third attempt also turned out to be a foul, keeping him at number five spot. Weber ended the round three with his lead intact.
In the fourth attempt, Czech’s Jakub took the lead in the 10-man field with a throw of 85.86 m. Neeraj was still in the fifth spot. Neeraj’s fourth throw was a massive 85.22 m, which took him to the number two spot. Jakub finished round 4 with a lead, with Neeraj at second spot.
Neeraj’s fifth throw was a foul. However, he had still done enough to stay at number 2. The World Champion committed his third foul in the event. He ended the second last round with number two, with Jakub’s lead still intact, even though he committed a foul as well.
In the end, Neeraj earned a second-spot finish and failed to defend his Diamond League title. His final throw was 85.71 m, missing out on the gold narrowly, with Jakub taking the top honour home.
On the other hand, India’s Murali Sreeshankar finished at number fifth in the men’s long jump competition with the best jump of 7.99 m. Staying in contention for a podium spot for more than half of the event, Sreeshankar could not match his performance with others and dipped down the ranks in the second half of the tournament.
Miltidias Tentoglou of Greece took home the gold with an 8.20 m jump, while Tamay Gayle bagged the second spot with his jump of 8.07 m. The third spot went to USA’s Lawson Jarrion with a jump of 8.05 m.