After placing fourth overall after the end of its 14 series meetings worldwide, India’s talented javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra, who has won two Olympic medals, has advanced to this month’s season finale of the elite Diamond League.
The season finale will take place in Brussels on September 13 and 14, over two days. Chopra earned 14 points from his two second-place results in the Doha and Lausanne one-day competitions.
The 26-year-old trails Czech player Jakub Vadlech by two points. The top two players are German sensation Julian Weber and Grenada’s Anderson Peters, with respective totals of 29 and 21 points. In the Zurich meet, Peters had defeated Weber.
Chopra, who added a silver medal to his collection in the Paris edition last month after winning gold in the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, has been having trouble staying healthy this season.
The Haryana boy has mentioned that he has been dealing with a groin problem since before the Olympics, which has prevented him from reaching the 90-meter mark.
In the Lausanne Diamond Leg, Peters, with a throw of 90.61 meters, defeated the Indian in second place. Arshad Nadeem of Pakistan won the gold medal in the Olympics in Paris thanks to a tremendous 92.97-meter throw.
“First goal, go to the doctor and make my groin 100 per cent fit and also I will be technically better and try to throw far again,” he had said last month about his plans for this year and the coming one.
In the winner-take-all finale held in Eugene, USA, last year, Chopra finished second behind Vadlejch, having won the Lausanne leg in 2022 and 2023.
A coveted “Diamond Trophy,” USD 30,000 in prize money, and a wild card into the World Athletics Championships are given to the winners of the Diamond League season finale.
Chopra’s season will end with the DL finale.
