Olympic champion Neeraj Chopra wins the second straight Diamond League
The defending champion wins his third Diamond League meet in a year.
Neeraj Chopra continued his consistent form and dominance as he won the Lausanne Diamond League with an 87.66m throw. He was coming off from a one-month-long injury but did not let it affect his performance as the Olympic champ secured the top spot with his fifth-round throw.
The 25-year-old, who had to skip three top events as he suffered a muscle strain while training last month, began with a foul and then had 83.52m and 85.04m throws in the second and third rounds respectively. He got another foul throw in round four before smashing an 87.66m throw in round five which turned out to be enough to clinch the top spot. His sixth and final throw was 84.15m.
PM Narendra Modi took to Twitter to congratulate the Olympic gold medal winner
The second position was taken by Germany’s Julian Weber with a throw of 87.03m followed by Jakub Vadlejch of the Czech Republic with an 86.13m throw. Chopra had also won the Lausanne leg last year in August which was his first Diamond League win. He followed that to win the Diamond League trophy in the finale a month later.
He also won the season-opening Diamond League at Doha, Qatar with a throw of 88.67m. He continues to lead the men’s javelin throw with 16 points in the league. The league comprises of 14 meetings and after the end of 13 meets, the top six players will get to play in the Finals. The final for this year will be held in Eugene on September 16 and 17.
M Sreeshankar is currently third in the long jump standings after three meets after a third-place finish in Paris and Abdulla Aboobacker Narangolintevid is ninth in the men’s triple jump after two meets.