Olympic gold medalist Neeraj Chopra.
| Photo Credit: ANI
Olympic champion javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra will start his season at the Diamond League assembly in Doha on May 5, as one of many high attracts in a star-studded discipline.
The 25-year-old Chopra, the reigning Diamond League champion after successful the grand finale in September final, will be part of world champion Anderson Peters of Grenada and Olympic silver medallist Jakub Vadlejch of the Czech Republic within the first meet of the 14-leg one-day collection of the season.
Chopra, who has a private better of 89.94m which he achieved whereas ending second at final 12 months’s Stockholm Diamond League assembly, is at the moment coaching in Turkiye. He will probably be there until May 31.
Due to an harm, the Indian famous person missed the 2022 Doha Diamond League Meeting the place Peters despatched the spear to 93.07m, the fifth-longest throw in historical past, to win the title. World Championships bronze medallist Vadlejch had completed second with a private greatest throw of 90.88m.
Alongside the embellished trio, the Doha Meeting can even see European champion Julian Weber of Germany, the Olympic and world fourth-place finisher with a better of 89.54m, former Olympic champion Keshorn Walcott (PB: 90.16m) of Trinidad & Tobago, former world champion and 2016 Olympic silver medallist Julius Yego (PB: 92.72m) of Kenya.
One of the targets for Chopra, the primary Indian Olympic gold medallist in monitor and discipline, this 12 months will probably be to cross the 90m mark, the gold customary on the planet of javelin.
“I’m also getting closer to the 90m mark, so it would mean a lot for me to break that barrier,” he stated.
“While final 12 months was 12 months for me with a brand new private greatest, world silver medal, and the win of the Wanda Diamond League, this 12 months brings new alternatives. My objective for this summer season is the World Championships, alongside the Asian Games and the defence of my Wanda Diamond League title.” After scripting history at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, Chopra won a silver in the 2022 World Championships in USA, where Peters won gold, but failed to defend the Commonwealth Games gold, he had won in 2018, at the Birmingham edition last year due to an injury.
He, however, recovered on time from the injury — which he had sustained during the World Championships — to win the Diamond League Finals in Switzerland.
“I’m at all times overwhelmed by the nice and cozy help I get from Indians internationally and in Qatar that’s notably particular, so I’m trying ahead to opening my 2023 Wanda Diamond League season in Doha alongside a bunch of unimaginable athletes, in entrance of a passionate crowd.” The 2023 Diamond League contains 14 conferences, beginning with Doha at the Qatar Sports Club on May 5 and concluding with a single last throughout two days in Eugene, USA (September 16-17).
