Olympic champion Neeraj Chopra rewrites national javelin throw record with 2nd-place finish in Stockholm Diamond League

Tokyo Olympic men’s javelin throw champion Neeraj Chopra is highly motivated when it comes to major competitions. The 24-year-old demonstrated this on Thursday night at the Stockholm Diamond League by rewriting his own national record in a second-place finish.

In a star-studded field, Chopra’s opening throw of 89.94m was an improvement on his own national record of 89.30m, registered earlier this month at the Paavo Nurmi Games in Finland.

It was a different matter as the Indian thrower narrowly missed his goal of entering the 90m club in Sweden after a series of 89.94m, 84.37m, 67.46m, 84.77m, 86.67m, and 86.84m throws.

Chopra’s Stockholm performance of 89.94m made him one of the strongest contenders for a podium finish at the Eugene World Athletics Championships, starting July 15 in Oregon, USA, which will be his next stop.

The Haryana athlete also surpassed the Stockholm meeting record of 89.78m in the name of Andreas Thorkildsen of Norway. But as the competition progressed, Anderson Peters of Grenada stole the show with a massive 90.31m in the third round to grab the pole position from the Indian thrower.

Peters, the world leader this year, had a series of 86.39m, 84.49m, 90.31m, and 85.03m throws before recording 87.38m in his sixth and final round.

Only the top three after the fifth round made it to the final.

Germany’s Julian Weber's fifth throw of 89.08m ranked him third in the highly competitive field and pushed Jakub Vadlejch of the Czech Republic to fourth place. Jakub was lying in third spot because of his opening throw of 88.59m, but after the fifth round, he slipped to fourth position.

Chopra had a brilliant start to the 2022 season. He started with 89.30m at the Paavo Nurmi Games in Finland, followed by the rain-hit Kuortane Games, where his best throw was 86.69m. The Stockholm Diamond League was his third competition of the season.