Our Bureau
Zurich
This Thursday, on August 28th, the two-time Olympic medallist Neeraj Chopra finished at the second spot and secured a silver medal in the Diamond League Finals for the third time in a row. Chopra was bested by Germany’s track star Julian Weber, who lifted his maiden trophy with a stellar performance scoring two 90m-plus throws.
While Chopra ended up as the runner-up in the competition, the Indian track star was stuck at the third spot till the fifth round following his opening throw of 84.35m. But Neeraj put in his all in his final effort knocking a score of 85.01m that took him to the second spot. He overtook the 2012 London Olympics gold winner Keshorn Walcott of Trinidad and Tobago besting his score of 84.95m.
Neeraj Chopra has been eyeing to win back the championship that he won back in 2022 but he again came a little short this time finishing second for the third year straight. After the finals, Chopra stated that the result was not too bad and he knows that he needs to improve his throws. The track star accepted that there were things that he could’ve done better and needed to improve a lot for the world championships.
“This was not too bad. But we are getting very close to the world championships, so I still need to throw a little bit further. There were a few things that went well, but still, there were the things which did not go that well,” Chopra said after the event.
The Indian track and field athlete congratulated Julian on his victory and lauded his performance at the event which was miles ahead of everyone else. He highlighted that he still needs to train more and it will all depend on the day itself on who’s going to win.
He added, “In the last attempt, I still managed to throw 85. But I am very happy for Julian today – he managed to throw really far, and to show 91m was really good. We will see in three weeks. I still need to train a little bit. In this sport, we do not know. It depends on the day.”
