Neeraj Chopra Aims Top Spot At Paris Diamond League After Back-To-Back Second-Place Finishes
Neeraj Chopra will be eyeing the first major title of the season after finishing second in back-to-back competitions as the superstar Indian javelin thrower returns to the Paris Diamond League after eight years to compete in a top-class field on June 20. The 27-year-old Indian had skipped the Paris DL last year in order to focus on the Olympic Games in the French capital. He last competed in the Paris DL in 2017 as a junior world champion and had finished fifth with a throw of 84.67m.
The Paris organisers are yet to publish the full list of competitors but they announced that Chopra and two-time world champion Anderson Peters of Grenada would be among five entrants who have already crossed the 90m mark.
"Javelin throwers Neeraj Chopra, a double Olympic medalist, and Anderson Peters, a double world champion, are among the five entrants who have already crossed the 90m line in a competition that promises to be a crazy one," the organisers said.
Peters had finished third behind Chopra in both Doha Diamond League on May 16 and Janusz Kusocinski Memorial meet in Poland on May 23.
Chopra began the 2025 season with a title in an invitational meet at Potchefstroom, South Africa, which was a minor -- category F -- event with a throw of 84.52m. He then finally breached the elusive 90m mark with a throw of 90.23m at Doha Diamond League on May 16 though German Julian Weber won the top spot with 91.06m.
A week later, the double Olympic medallist again finished second behind Weber at the Janusz Kusocinski Memorial meet in Poland with a best throw of 84.14m, which was a below-par show considering his high standards, though the competition was held under chilly and overcast conditions.
Chopra would be looking to make amends in his second DL outing of the season in Paris on June 20 at the venue where he had won his second Olympic medal -- a silver -- in August last year.
Four days after the Paris DL, Chopra will compete at the Golden Spike 2025 athletics meet in Ostrava, Czech Republic on June 24.
After that, the reigning world champion Indian will feature in the inaugural edition of the Neeraj Chopra Classic on July 5 in Bengaluru, a World Athletics category A event which he is hosting.
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