Neeraj Chopra clinches silver at Janusz Kusocinski Memorial in Poland
Neeraj Chopra. (PIC - X)
India's two-time Olympic medallist Neeraj Chopra secured a second-place finish in the javelin throw at the Janusz Kusocinski Memorial meet in Chorzów, Poland, on Friday. Though Neeraj won his third medal of the season, he could not quite replicate his season-best performance from the Doha Diamond League, which had also bagged him a silver medal.
Battling wet conditions at the Janusz Kusocinski Memorial meet in Chorzów, Chopra, considered India's greatest-ever athlete, struggled for his rhythm but did enough to continue his successful run in the season.
With a below-par effort of 84.14m on his sixth and final attempt, Chopra, who hails from Haryana and is employed with the Indian Army, edged past Grenada's two-time world champion Anderson Peters, who managed a best of 83.24m.
The 27-year-old Chopra, who hurled the spear past the 90m mark for the first time in Doha last week, had started his campaign at the Janusz Kusocinski Memorial with a foul and then followed it up with 81.20m and then made a deliberate four on his next attempt. Chopra, the golden boy of Indian athletics, intentionally overstepped on his next turn and threw 81.80m with his fifth throw before achieving his best distance of the day in his final attempt.
Germany's Julian Weber continued his strong form and once again got the better of Chopra, clinching top honours with a winning throw of 86.12m. Weber had hurled the javelin to 91.06m in Doha to win the gold medal, which was also the first time he went past the 90 m mark in his career
The silver in Poland is the third medal for the season for Neeraj Chopra, who made history by bagging a gold medal in the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games and followed it up with a silver medal in Paris 2024.
Chopra started his season by winning the Potch Invitational Meet in Potchefstroom, South Africa, with an 84.52m throw in April before bettering his own personal best and the national record to 90.23m at the Doha Diamond League last week.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Mint
28 minutes ago
- Mint
D Gukesh takes Magnus Carlsen's post-loss outburst in sporting manner; says ‘I have also banged a lot of tables…'
D Gukesh secured his maiden classical victory over Magnus Carlsen in a thrilling turn of events at Norway Chess 2025, on Monday (June 2). Just days after Carlsen, a five-time world champion, dealt a significant setback to Gukesh in the tournament's opening round, the young Indian champion bounced back. Gukesh turned a seemingly lost position into a victory, earning three crucial points. However, Carlsen's reaction after losing the game caught everyone's attention. The World no.1 was unable to control his anger after the defeat and banged the table. Gukesh gave his take on his opponent's reaction. The incident took place towards the end of their round 6 clashes when D Gukesh registered turned the tables in his favour and registered a win against Magnus Carlsen. Frustrated Magnus banged the table on which the chessboard was kept, leaving the commentators in total shock. He then gave a cold handshake to Gukesh before collecting and started putting the pieces back on the table. The video of the incident went viral on social media. Gukesh took the entire incident in sporting manner. "I have also banged a lot of tables in my career," he was quoted by Speaking about his win the 19-year-old expressed, "It was not the way I wanted it to be, but okay, I will take it. Gukesh jumped to the third spot with 8.5 points after the victory. The Indian player is trailing the world No.1 Carlsen and American Fabiano Caruana. It was a huge comeback for Gukesh, who seemed to lose the game against Carlsen but changed the situation to claim his maiden Classical chess contest in 62 moves. Gukesh's Polish coach said the win would give him 'a huge pump' in future battles with the Norwegian. 'The win just gives a huge pump of confidence to Gukesh because once you've done it, you know you can do it again. And that's the plan,' said Gajewski. When asked if other players from India will suddenly feel confident about themselves beating Carlsen following Gukesh's feat, he said, it certainly does.
Mint
28 minutes ago
- Mint
Kohlis aggression, Hardiks resilience inspiring young TT player Ankur
Ahmedabad, Jun 2 (PTI) An ardent fan of Virat Kohli and Hardik Pandya, rising Indian paddler Ankur Bhattacharjee once aspired to be a cricketer before shifting to table tennis, but his love for cricket still remains. The 18-year-old is big admirer of Kohli's aggression and Hardik's mental strength and wants to imbibe those qualities into his game. "There is a lot of aggression in my game, so I admire Virat Kohli sir's aggressive attitude. I also love Hardik Pandya sir's mental strength. I follow both a lot and try to bring their qualities into my game," Ankur told PTI. Despite turning pro in table tennis, his love for cricket still remains and he doesn't miss a single India match. But after taking up table tennis, his only goal was to fulfil his parents' dream. "I love cricket a lot and try not to miss a single India match. I wanted to be a cricketer but my father and mother both were table tennis players and they are my personal coach too," Ankur said. "My mother pressured me by saying everyone plays cricket, you play table tennis. Then I started playing and I loved it. "Both my father (Angshuman Bhattacharjee) and mother (Kuntali Bhattacharjee) were national level players." Ankur is currently participating in the sixth season of the Ultimate Table Tennis League for Kolkata Thunder Blades. "This year I feel our team is stronger than last year. My form is also better than last year, so I feel we can win the title this year," he said. "UTT is a big platform for youngsters, I feel more such tournaments like UTT should happen. Like last year before playing UTT my India ranking was out of 10, but now I am India ranking 2 in singles. "I have just returned after playing World Championships and had a decent performance there." Ankur had already stamped his authority at the junior level, having won the under-19 boys singles title at the Youth National Championships for three years in a row. He has also won three consecutive bronze medals at the Junior Asian Championships. "I played 6 tournaments at youth level this year and won all of them. This is my first year at senior level and till now I feel I am performing well but I need to take this to the next level," he said. Just like any other athlete, Ankur's target is to finish on the podium in big international tournaments in future. "Just came back after playing World Championships, so the next target is to win a medal for India at Asian Championships in Bhubaneswar this year," he said. "Just like everyone, my future goal is to win Olympic gold but it is easier said than done. I am not thinking about it now. I am taking one step at a time." Besides being a table tennis player, Ankur also writes poems in Bengali, a quality which he got from his grandfather. "I used to write a lot earlier and even written for some books as well. I got inspired to write from my grandfather who was a poet. Now I don't get much time to write but do try as and when I can," he said.
Mint
an hour ago
- Mint
'He's that good': Shreyas Iyer backed to lead India in multiple formats as MI bow out of IPL 2025
Shreyas Iyer has entered the history books by becoming the first-ever captain in IPL history to take three franchises to the finals. The 30-year-old led the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) to their first IPL title in a decade and had previously led the Delhi Capitals to the IPL 2020 Finals. With Iyer being among the only eight captains who have won an IPL trophy and on the way to winning another silverware, the chorus for handing him more responsibility within the Indian team has also started to grow. Former Indian cricketer Robin Uthappa has predicted that Shreyas Iyer will captain Team India in multiple formats. Notably, the Indian team currently has three different captains across the formats: Suryakumar Yadav leads the charge in T20Is, Shubman Gill is at the helm of the Test team, and Rohit Sharma captains the ODIs. In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Uthappa wrote, 'I've said this time and again and I'll say it AGAIN!! Iyer will captain India in multiple formats!! He has to!! He's that good!! 🫡🫠' While there may not be any captaincy spot open for Iyer to take over in the Indian team at the moment, the Mumbai-based batter will likely be taking inspiration from Rohit Sharma. Sharma led Mumbai Indians (MI) to five IPL trophies from 2013 to 2020, all the while the Indian team was either led by MS Dhoni or Virat Kohli. Finally, when the opportunity arose to lead Team India after Virat Kohli stepped down, Rohit Sharma took it with both hands and has since led the team to two ICC trophies: the T20 World Cup 2024 and the Champions Trophy 2025. In the meantime, Iyer's performances with the bat are making it more and more unlikely that the BCCI would be able to ignore him for long in either T20Is or the Test format.
