Neeraj Chopra missed the Doha Diamond League men’s javelin throw title on Friday by just two centimetres. (PHOTO: Screengrab via JioCinema)
Neeraj Chopra started off his 2024 athletics season with a second-place finish at the Doha Diamond League meet. It was just two centimetres that prevented Olympic and world champion Neeraj Chopra from winning the men’s javelin throw event at his first competition of 2024, at the Doha Diamond League on Friday.
The Tokyo Olympics champion’s best throw of the night was a 88.36 metres attempt. He produced it with his final attempt of the night. But it fell two centimetres short of Tokyo Olympics silver winner Jakub Vadlejch’s winning effort of 88.38 metres.
Neeraj’s compatriot, Kishore Jena ended ninth in the 10-man standings with a best attempt of 76.31m on the night. He was eliminated after three throws.
Just like many previous seasons, Neeraj had set his sights on breaching the 90m mark this season.
He was asked about it at the pre-even press conference on Thursday.
“People have been asking me this question since 2018 when I threw 88.06 at the Asian Games,” Neeraj Chopra said on Thursday in Doha. “A lot of things happened after that, my elbow injury, the surgery and now I have been stuck between 88 and 90m. But I really want to break the barrier this year. Even last year, I had said that Doha is famous for 90m. But, we were not lucky due to too much headwind. Maybe tomorrow we’ll have a good day. Obviously, it is the Olympics year and India is a big country and everyone expects gold always. My focus is to just stay healthy and concentrate on my technique. And yes, if I stay healthy everything will be good.”
After this, Neeraj Chopra will be in action at the 27th National Federation Cup athletics championships in Odisha, which will be held from May 12 to May 15 at the Kalinga Stadium, Bhubaneswar.
Neeraj Chopra was last seen in action at the 2021 National Federation Cup athletics championships.
Neeraj had spoken about his goals for the season previously.
“I want to be in best possible shape before Paris Olympics. My training sessions have gone off really well so far. I always lay stress on fitness along with strength and technique. This is the best I have felt in a long time but I must add that training and competition are not the same. When you wear the India jersey, the feeling is different, the josh (energy) is unbelievable,” Neeraj had said to SAI Media.
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