DOHA: Olympic gold medal winner Neeraj Chopra didn’t waste time to leave his mark after his recovery from injury as he claimed the Doha Diamond League 2023. Neeraj missed the action due to an injury but, from his very first attempt it seemed as if he picked up his form right where he left off.
Chopra’s first throw was 88.67 which was a great way to start the new season. His first throw was enough to seal the victory for him, but he still tried to push ahead. After his throw, it was clearly evident that Chopra was not satisfied despite making a decent start. He was leading the chart after the first attempt.
Chopra’s second throw resulted in an 86.04m distance, maintaining his lead in the charts over Tokyo Olympics silver medallist Jakub Vadlejch, who was able to reach 88.63m, and world champion Anderson Peters, whose best attempt is 85.88m. Chopra had the lead by only four centimetres. In his third attempt, Neeraj threw the spear at a distance of 85.47m. He still held on to the lead despite the decrease in distance from his first attempt.
The Czech Republic thrower moved up to second place, overtaking Anderson Peters. Neeraj made a foul on his fourth attempt. In his second last attempt, he touched a distance of 84.37m. On the other hand, Vadlejch still could not surpass Chopra’s distance (88.47m) in his fifth attempt. Anderson Peters fell behind in his fifth attempt as he registered a distance of 82.22m.
In the end, Neeraj claimed victory with the distance he covered in his first attempt. However, the Olympic gold medalist fell short of breaching the 90-meter mark.
On the other hand, India’s Eldhose Paul, a Commonwealth Games triple jump champion, finished 10th in the 11-men field with a best jump of 15.84m on his first attempt.
Making his Diamond League debut, the 26-year-old Eldhose Paul hit 13.65m and 14.70m on his next two attempts and failed to progress further to the medal round. Eldhose Paul’s personal best is 16.99m which he achieved at India’s Federation Cup last year. (ANI)