Diamond league: Saving best for last

Lausanne, August 23

Star Indian javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra finished second in the Diamond League after producing a season’s best effort from his last attempt in a gritty performance despite lingering fitness concerns. The 26-year-old was at the fourth spot till the fourth round before sending his spear to 85.58m in his fifth attempt. He saved the best for last and his final attempt measured 89.49m on Thursday, a marginal improvement on the 89.45m achieved in the Paris Olympics.

He was in danger of missing the sixth throw but his fifth round effort saved him. Only the top three after five rounds get their respective final attempts.

Two-time world champion and Paris Olympics bronze-medallist Anderson Peters of Grenada won the event with a throw of 90.61m in the second round while Julian Weber of Germany took the third spot with 87.08m.

“The feeling wasn’t great at first, but I am happy with my throw, especially the second (career) best throw on my last attempt. It was a tough start, but the comeback was really nice and I enjoyed the fighting spirit I showed,” Chopra said. “Even though my early throws were around 80-83m, I pushed hard in the last two attempts finishing strong. Competing at this high level, it’s important to stay mentally tough and fight through,” he added.

Peters, who had struggled to find form last year, led the competition here from beginning to end and he stamped his class with the 90m-plus throw in the last round. He has a personal best of 93.07m achieved in 2022. With seven points from Thursday’s second-place finish, Chopra is joint third alongside Weber in the Diamond League standings with 15 points. Peters jumped to the top with 21 points. Czech Republic’s Jakub Vadlejch, who finished seventh (82.03m), is second with 16 points.

There is another DL meeting — in Zurich on September 5 — which has a men’s javelin throw event on its roster. Chopra is yet to win a DL meeting this year. He finished second behind Vadlejch in Doha on May 10.

‘Stay relaxed’

Chopra said that an advice to “stay relaxed” from his Kenyan counterpart Julius Yego proved decisively helpful in calming his racing mind before he pulled off a season’s best effort to finish second. “Peters threw 90m, my body didn’t feel good but the fighting spirit was nice. I really liked my comeback. In the last throw I didn’t think too much, just gave my best,” Chopra said.

“In the first throw, I thought I will do this, I will do that but in the last throw, I did not, also Julius Yego said ‘relax, you will throw far’. I tried to relax,” he added.

Yego finished sixth with an effort of 83m.

Chopra said the competition on the day was “strange” as he did not feel he was up to it when he started. “...in the beginning I did not think I will throw very far but in the end it was good,” he said.

Asked how much more would he compete this season, the Indian said, “May be two or one competition and then finish the season. I am not sure, may be Brussels (Diamond League finale).”

On his goals for next year, Chopra said getting back to full fitness would be his priority. “First goal, go to the doctor and make my groin 100 per cent fit and also I will be technically better and try to throw far again,” he said. — PTI

Wanyonyi runs 4th fastest 800m

Lausanne: Olympics champion Emmanuel Wanyonyi ran the fourth-fastest 800m time in history. Wanyonyi clocked 1 minute, 41.11 seconds — 0.08 faster than his winning time in Paris two weeks ago — to tie Wilson Kipketer’s mark in 1997 that was a world record then. Only Wanyonyi’s fellow Kenyan David Rudisha has run the 800 faster. Jakob Ingebrigtsen regained his authority in the men’s 1,500 — after a shocking fourth place in Paris — to beat Olympics champion Cole Hocker by more than two seconds. Olympics champions Yaroslava Mahuchikh in women’s high jump and Miltiadis Tentoglou in men’s long jump both took repeat wins. AP