Neeraj Chopra competes in the Javelin Throw. File Photo
| Photo Credit: AP
Returning to action after a one-month injury lay-off, Olympic 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 on Friday.
The 25-year-old Indian superstar had made a perfect start to the Diamond League season with a top podium finish in Doha, Qatar, on May 5 with a fourth career-best throw of 88.67m but suffered a muscle strain while training later that month.
He issued a statement on May 29 stating his injury and pulled out of the FBK Games on June 4 at Hengelo (the Netherlands) and Paavo Nurmi Games in Turku, Finland on June 13 as a precautionary measure.
But he did not miss any Diamond League competition as the subsequent legs in Rabat, Rome, Paris and Oslo did not have men’s javelin events in the roster.
In action in Lausanne will also be Tokyo Olympics silver medallist and season leader Jakub Vadlejch (SB: 89.51m, PB: 90.88m) of Czech Republic, world champion Anderson Peters of Grenada (SB: 85.88m, PB: 93.07m), Oliver Helander (SB: 87.32m, PB: 89.83m) of Finland, 2012 Olympic champion Keshorn Walcott (PB: 85.85m, SB: 90.16m) of Trinidad and Tobago and Germany’s Julian Weber (SB: 88.37m, PB: 89.54m).
Having won the Doha Diamond League event, Chopra is currently leading the standings, with eight points, followed by Vadlejch with seven points, and Peters with six points.
The Indian superstar 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.
Following the Lausanne event, men’s javelin throw will also be a part of the competition in the Monaco and Zurich legs on July 21 and August 31 before the Diamond League grand finale in Eugene, USA, on September 16-17.
India’s newest Diamond League podium finisher, long jumper Murali Sreeshankar will also in action in his event here. 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 Diamond League after a personal best jump of 8.41m en route to winning gold at the National Inter-State Athletics Championships earlier this month, just 1cm shy of the national record of 8.42m which is in the name of Jeswin Aldrin.
Aldrin entered his name initially for Lausanne Diamond League but later pulled out as he was not “fully fit” for the event.
A host of international top stars, led by Olympic champion Miltiadis Tentoglou of Greece, will be in action along with Sreeshankar. Switzerland’s Simon Ehammer, who defeated Tentoglou in mid-June in Oslo with a jump of 8.32m, and young Italian revelation Mattia Furlani (8.24m) will also compete here.
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