File picture of ace Indian javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra. AP
Neeraj Chopra relinquished his maintain on the Diamond League crown on Saturday by ending second within the Ultimate in Eugene.
Olympic and world champion Chopra, who had simply final month turn out to be the first Indian to win World Championships gold, completed second with a greatest effort of 83.80 metres in his second try.
Czech Republic’s Jakub Vadlejch, who had completed behind Chopra and Pakistan’s Arshad Nadeem within the World Championships in Budapest final month, clinched the highest spot with a greatest effort of 84.24m in his last try.
Vadlejch had grabbed the lead in his very first try of 84.01m and maintained a stranglehold on the highest spot, with nobody else within the six-man last capable of breach the 84-metre mark.
Finland’s Oliver Helander completed third because of his effort of 83.74 metres in his third try.
Chopra’s high effort of 83.80 metres was a far cry from his effort of 88.17 metres that landed him World Championships gold on 27 August, in addition to his throw of 88.44m that helped him win last year’s Diamond League final in Zurich.
The Haryanvi athlete, who at the moment holds the nationwide file with a personal-best effort of 89.94m, had received two Diamond League conferences earlier this 12 months in Doha and Lausanne respectively.
Third crown for Vadlejch
The 25-year-old Chopra struggled within the windy circumstances within the grand finale on the Hayward Discipline as he fouled his two makes an attempt. His greatest throw of the day got here within the second try. His sequence learn foul, 83.80m, 81.37m, foul, 80.74 and 80.90m.
This was his first under 85m throw of the season. He had certified for the DL Finals on the third spot. He had received the 2022 DL Finals in Zurich with a throw of 88.44m.
Vadlejch thus grew to become the Diamond League champion for the third time. He had earlier clinched the DL title in 2017 and 2018.
This was the identical venue the place Chopra had completed second within the 2022 World Championships.
He had turn out to be solely the third javelin thrower in historical past to carry each the Olympic and World Championships crowns after profitable the worlds title in Budapest with a throw of 88.17m.
Just some days after profitable the World Championships title, he competed within the Zurich DL leg on 31 August when he completed second behind Vadlejch.
Chopra will now head to the Hangzhou Asian Video games starting later this month the place he’ll defend the gold he had received in 2018 in Indonesia.
With inputs from PTI