Olympic and world champion Neeraj Chopra is bracing for two major events in less than three weeks. On Saturday, Chopra will compete at the Diamond League finale in Eugene where he will be firm favourite to repeat his 2022 win. He will then fly to Hangzhou, China, for the Asian Games and gear up for another title defence.
Chopra will need to dig deep if he is to win at both events. He has been at his dominating best this season and showed his class in Budapest last month winning his first world championships title with a throw of 88.17m. Chopra’s biggest competitor there was Pakistan’s Arshad Nadeem who took silver with 87.82m heave. Nadeem will be missing from the line-up in Eugene but will be expected to give a strong challenge to Chopra at the Asian Games.
Fresh from his title victory at the world championships in Budapest, Neeraj will be up for the challenge in the marquee meet at Hayward Field. At stake will be the glittering ‘Diamond Trophy’, US$ 30,000 prize money and a wild card for the world championships. Only six top javelin throwers of the season will be in action. It includes Olympic silver medallist Jakub Vadlejch, Oliver Helander, Andrian Mardare, 2022 world champion Anderson Peters, and Curtis Thompson.
Two-time Diamond League champion Vadlejch, too, has been in great form. He had back-to-back wins in Monaco and Zurich but could only fiinish with bronze (86.67) at the world championships. Vadlejch has the world lead of the season — a massive 89.51m at the Paavo Nurmi Games in June. Nobody has been able to throw 90m this season and it will be interesting to see whether the world’s best throwers have enough fire left late in the season to push themselves.
Chopra, for sure, will try to not to stretch himself too much before the Asian Games. He had an injury scare in the earlier half of the season that saw him miss a few competitions and before coming back and registering his season’s best of 88.77m in Budapest.
The 25-year-old has competed in only four competitions this season, he has taken the first place in three and finished with silver in the Diamond leg in Switzerland two weeks back with a throw of 85.71m.
Two other Indians — long jumper Murali Sreeshankar and steeplechaser Avinash Sable — who also qualified for Eugene withdrew as they wanted to focus on the Asian Games. Both have returned to India and are gearing up for Hangzhou meet.
