Spotlight On Neeraj Chopra As He Competes For First Time As Diamond League Champion

Spotlight On Neeraj Chopra As He Competes For First Time As Diamond League Champion

Contending for the first time as Diamond League champion, star pikestaff venture Neeraj Chopra will be over against his familiar nemeses in the first leg of the prestigious meetings series on Friday, as he aims to begin a’ long’ season speckled with a strong performance. The 25- time-old Chopra, also a 2022 World Crowns tableware winner, faces the likes of reigning world champion Anderson Peters of Grenada and Tokyo Olympics tableware quarterfinalist Jakub Vadlejch of Czech Republic in a star- speckled field at the Qatar Sports Club.

Chopra, who has a particular stylish and public record of89.94 m, had finished fourth with87.43 m in 2018 in the only other participation in the Doha Diamond League. He couldn’t take part then last time due to lack of” overall fitness and strength”.

Despite missing the Doha leg, Chopra went on to script history one after the other last time. He came the first Indian Diamond League champion after winning the 2022 grand homestretch in Zurich in September. A month before that, he came the first Indian to win a Diamond League Meeting in Lausanne.

Chopra last month said that he was feeling better” physically and technically” at the matching point in time, but it’ll not be easy for him to win the top prize in the season- opening Diamond League then, going by the inconceivable competition seen then last time.

Peters had produced the fifth-longest gamble in history by hurling the shaft to93.07 m, a mark just outside German Thomas Rohler's93.90 m, a meeting record set in 2017.

Vadlejch, who finished second behind Chopra in Tokyo Olympics and won a citation in the 2022 World Crowns, also recorded a particular of90.88 m then last time in his first ever throw over 90m.

Alongside the decorated triad, the Doha Meeting will also have European champion Julian Weber of Germany, who has a particular stylish of89.54 m, 2012 Olympic champion Keshorn Walcott( PB90.16 m) of Trinidad & Tobago and former world champion and 2016 Olympic tableware quarterfinalist Julius Yego( PB92.72 m) of Kenya.

” This is my first competition of the season. It’s always good when you have great challengers,” Chopra said at thepre-event press conference.

” Vadlejch has formerly thrown88.38 m in Potchefstroom( South Africa, on April 18), so I suppose hereafter will see great competition. Also, Doha is notorious for 90m throws. So we will see, hopefully hereafter will have great results for all.” One of the targets for Chopra, the first Indian Olympic gold quarterfinalist in track and field, this time will be to cross the 90m mark, the gold standard in the world of pikestaff, but whether he can achieve the feat in his first competition of the season remains to be seen.

Last month, he said he’d also be looking to cross the coveted mark this time, though he’s not putting himself under pressure to achieve the feat.

” Last time, I was just 6 cm short of 90m. I hope to do it this time but I’ll not put any pressure on myself. It’s a magical mark and 90m club is notorious in world of pikestaff. I hope to enter it this time,” Chopra had said.

The Doha match will also see 2022 Commonwealth Games triadic jump champion Eldhose Paul contend in a field, which includes Tokyo Olympic champion Pedro Pichardo( PB18.08 m)) of Portugal, reigning Diamond League winner Andy Diaz Hernandez(17.07 m) of Cuba and two- time Olympic gold winner( 2012 and 2016) and five- time world champion Christian Taylor( PB18.21 m) of USA.

With a particular stylish of16.99 m, it’ll be delicate for Paul to be on the tribune in a top- class field. He’d won gold in the Birmingham CWG with a wind- supported trouble of17.03m.

The Diamond League is track and field’s most prestigious series sitting in the top league of World Athletics’ one- day competitions. The 2023 Diamond League comprises 13 meetings, starting with the Doha event leading up to the two- day Diamond League Final in Eugene, USA, on September 16- 17.