Neeraj Chopra finishes fourth in Doha Diamond League on return to action for crucial season

Doha, June 20 (IANS) India’s two-time Olympic medallist Neeraj Chopra finished fourth in the javelin throw event of the Doha Diamond League event, ending with a season’s best throw of 85.69 metres in Doha, Qatar. With his solid effort on Friday, Neeraj Chopra achieved the qualifying standard for the upcoming Commonwealth Games to be held from July 23 to August 2.

This was the season’s first Diamond League event for India’s legendary athlete Chopra, who is returning from an injury. This was a decent effort by the star Indian athlete, who had delayed his decision over his return to action, asking the Diamond League officials to confirm his participation at the last moment as he continued to assess his recovery from injury. After his final training session convinced both him and his support team that he was ready, the organisers agreed, paving the way for his comeback in Doha.

Chopra, the first Indian athlete to win an Olympic gold medal, finished behind Sri Lanka’s Rumesh Tharanga Pathirage (88.96 m), former Olympic champion Anderson Peters of Granada (86.38), and Curtis Thompson of the United States, who ended third with a throw of 85.99m. Both Peters and Thompson also came up with their season’s best. Pathirage, however, failed to come anywhere close to his personal best of 92.62 achieved at Rome two weeks back on June 4. Fellow Indian Sachin Yadav failed to qualify for the final.

Indian fans were eagerly waiting for Neeraj Chopra’s return to the season at his first Diamond League event of the year. However, they were left disappointed as the Indian star, who won a historic gold medal in the Tokyo Olympic Games and followed it up with a silver in Paris in 2024, failed to recreate his usual magic and had to be satisfied with fourth position.

The 29-year-old Chopra, a former Diamond League Champion, started the final with a foul and threw the spear to a modest 82.77m in the second round. His next throw was his best for the day as he crossed 85.69.

Chopra, who has finished first in five Diamond League meets so far, failed to improve on that as he managed only 83.45 in his fourth throw and fouled his fifth and last attempt. Chopra has a personal best of 90.23metres.

Usually, his first attempt of the day is his best, but on Friday, that was not the case as Chopra overstepped and then failed to replicate his best. This is still a good outing for Chopra as it allows him to assess his recovery ahead of the season’s two mega events — the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow and the Asian Games in Japan.

As part of his recovery programme, Chopra had trained at the Swiss Olympic Training Centre in Magglingen, a location he credited for providing the ideal atmosphere to rebuild both physically and technically ahead of his return.

“I was in Magglingen, a Swiss Olympic Training Centre, there. I really like that place; it’s in the mountains, and very quiet, so you can focus on your things and techniques,” he mentioned.

–IANS

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