Diamond league: Chopra looks to build on Doha success, Sreeshankar in fray too

Lausanne, June 29

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Returning to action after a month’s injury lay-off, Tokyo Olympics champion javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra will seek his second straight podium finish of the season at the Lausanne leg of the Diamond League in a star-studded field tomorrow.

The 25-year-old Indian superstar had made a perfect start to the Diamond League season when he got a first-place finish in the Doha leg last month with a fourth career-best throw of 88.67 metres but suffered a muscle strain while training later in May.

Eventually, he had to pull out of the FBK Games at Hengelo, the Netherlands, and the Paavo Nurmi Games in Turku, Finland, earlier this month as a precautionary measure.

He will face a stiff competition from the Tokyo Olympics silver medallist and season leader Jakub Vadlejch of Czech Republic, who has a season’s best throw of 89.51m and a personal best throw of 90.88m. World champion Anderson Peters of Grenada (SB: 85.88m, PB: 93.07m), Oliver Helander (SB: 87.32m, PB: 89.83m) of Finland, 2012 Olympics champion Keshorn Walcott (PB: 85.85m, SB: 90.16m) of Trinidad and Tobago and Germany’s Julian Weber (SB: 88.37m, PB: 89.54m) will also be eyeing the top spot.

Having won the Doha leg, Chopra is currently leading the standings with eight points and is followed by Vadlejch with seven points and Peters with six. The Indian will be looking to further establish his ascendancy and dominance in the prestigious one-day event series, having won the Diamond League trophy last year.

India’s newest Diamond League star, long jumper Murali Sreeshankar, will also be in action. He will be looking to register his second podium finish after taking the third spot in Paris earlier in June with a jump of 8.09m.

The 24-year-old Sreeshankar is coming into the Lausanne leg after a personal best jump of 8.41m en route winning gold at the National Inter-State Athletics Championships earlier this month, just 1cm shy of the national record of 8.42m, held by Jeswin Aldrin.