Guwahati: Tokyo Olympics gold medallist Neeraj Chopra won the javelin throw event at the Lausanne Diamond League on Friday with a best throw of 89.08 metres.
Chopra has now become the first Indian to win Lausanne’s renowned Diamond League Meeting competition thanks to the throw.
Neeraj is now eligible to compete in the Diamond League Finals, which will be held from September 7 to 8 in Zurich, Switzerland. He is now eligible to compete in the 2023 World Championships.
Neeraj’s throws that day were 89.08 metres and 85.18 metres, and he skipped the third while fouling the fourth. In addition, he skipped his fifth attempt before succeeding on his sixth and last effort with a spectacular throw of 80.04m.
Jakub Valejch of the Czech Republic came in second with a throw of 85.88 metres, followed by Curtis Thompson of the United States with an 83.72 metre effort.
Neeraj was disqualified from the Commonwealth Games earlier in July. Neeraj suffered an injury at the World Athletics Championships finals on Sunday in Oregon, when he won the silver medal and put an end to India’s 19-year medal drought.
Neeraj won the gold medal in the CWG 2018, which took place in Australia. The fact that he won’t be able to defend his title, he continued, has caused him great pain.
With a national record throw of 89.94 metres, only 6 centimetres short of the 90 metres mark, the benchmark in the world of javelin throws, Neeraj had placed second in the Stockholm leg of the renowned competition, trailing the world champion Anderson Peters of Grenada by one place.