Diamond League Final: Chopra seeking to end on a high after playing second fiddle all season

Three years ago, Neeraj Chopra made history as the first Indian to win an Olympic gold in track field. He followed it up with another historic throw in Budapest, Hungary to also become the first Indian to win a world outdoor title.

Chopra was ready to extend his dominance to the following year, the year of the Paris Olympics but things did not really work out as he intended. And it began right from his first appearance in the Diamond League in Doha.

His late fight back to claim the win from Czech’s Vadlejch Jaku ended up just two centimeters short. Vadlejch led from the start with his 85.87m effort and inproved to 88.38m in the third round.

Chopra, with the confidence of a reigning World and Olympic champion threw everything he had into his sixth and final throw, but it landed just two centimtres before Vadlejch’s javelin landed.

That would define the Indian’s season as he failed to throw himself back into the podium as champion. A number of no throws ensured he could not challenge Pakistan’s Arshad Nadeem from running away with the gold medal at the Olympics in Paris.

The Pakistani threw 92.97m in the second round and was never headed again by Chopra whose 89.45m second round throw was his only valid effort inside the Stade de France main bowl in Saint-Dennis.

Chopra will now be looking to throw himself into reckoning as the main man to only reclaim the Diamond League trophy he won in 2022 but get a psychological boost ahead of next year where he will be seeking to develop his world title.

In Brussels on Friday, Chopra will not be able to ‘avenge’ the loss of his Olympic title to his neighbor, Arshad Nadeem who he has beaten 10 times in 11 head-to-head clashes, but the 26-year-old can extend his head-to-head superiority over Vadlejch to 15-9 and reclaim his Diamond League title from the Czech man.