CHENNAI: The Lausanne Diamond League will be special for many reasons. One of the most consistent athletes on the international circuit since Tokyo 2020 Olympics gold in 2021, Neeraj Chopra had only one valid throw in the final of the javelin in Paris on August 8th night. That was enough for him to secure the silver in Summer Games behind Pakistan’s Arshad Nadeem, who magically wrote himself into the history books with a mammoth 92.72m throw.
Things didn't go as planned and Neeraj was quite perturbed by his effort, especially the foul throws. He has not fouled so many times in one competition in recent times. He spoke about the groin injury that had been troubling him for quite some time and also said that he would seek a final opinion before addressing it. He kept repeating, “andar bahut baki hai" (there is a lot more inside) almost sounding remorseful and hurt. This will give him more confidence despite injury concerns.
The Olympic final was good as it fetched him a medal but the final effort was not to his liking. Yet the 26-year-old entered the history book as the most successful individual athlete of the country. His reputation would be intact even if he doesn’t win anything after this. But for a champion like him not winning is not part of his sporting jargon. He rued his lack of good legwork and rhythm during the final. Yet, he never believed that he would not be able to overhaul Arshad’s throw.
When he goes out on the track of Lausanne on Thursday, Neeraj would be hoping to better his season’s best achieved in Paris. During a recent interaction he had said that he has not been able to focus 100 per cent because of the injury because somewhere the mind and body were holding him back.
He has been avoiding surgery because he was preparing for the Budapest World Championships last year and the Olympics this year. At Lausanne, it would be about two weeks from the Olympic final, and hopefully, Neeraj would be able to better the Paris mark of 89.45m. The elusive 90m-mark, which he believes would come any time now, is within his grasp. His best is 89.94m as of now.
The field in javelin is almost similar to the ones before Lausanne. The competitors know about each other and keep track of each one’s performances. On Thursday (late India time), all the top javelin throwers would assemble for a chunk of the Diamond League pie. Neeraj had competed only in the first DL at Doha and had skipped the Paris DL. His major competition before the Olympics, apart from Doha DL, was at Paavo Nurmi Games in Turku. His effort by his standard was a modest 85.97m.
Former world champion and Paris Games bronze medallist Grenada’s Anderson Peters will once again give Neeraj a tough competition with Arshad not taking part in the event. At the Games, Peters managed 88.54m in the final. Jakub Vadlejch of the Czech Republic finished fourth and was just four centimetres behind Peters. He too would be one of the contenders for the Diamond League winner’s spot. He has 14 points while Peters has 13.
Julian Weber of Germany, one of the contenders for a medal at the Games, too would be there to push the athletes. Weber finished sixth with a throw of 87.40m and finished below Kenya’s Julius Yego (87.72m). Lausanne weather is expected to be ideal for throwing. It needs to be seen whether Neeraj would soar to his consistency Everest once again. One good throw is all he needs. Over the last three years he has been dominating this field and is expected to do it again.