Indian Olympic champion, Neeraj Chopra, will start his season at the Diamond League meeting in Doha on May 5. He missed the 2022 Doha Diamond League due to an injury, but came back to win the grand finale in September. Chopra has been training abroad for the last few months and will join world champion Anderson Peters of Grenada and Olympic silver medallist Jakub Vadlejch of the Czech Republic in the first meet of the 14-leg one-day series of the season.
Chopra has a personal best of 89.94m which he achieved while finishing second at last year’s Stockholm Diamond League meeting. He is currently training in Turkiye and will be there till May 31. Alongside the decorated trio, the Doha Meeting will also see European champion Julian Weber of Germany, the Olympic and world fourth-place finisher with a best 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 Chopra’s targets this year will be to cross the 90m mark, the gold standard in the world of javelin. He said, “I’m also getting closer to the 90m mark, so it would mean a lot for me to break that barrier. While last year was a good year for me with a new personal best, world silver medal, and the win of the Wanda Diamond League, this year brings new opportunities. My goal for this summer is the World Championships, alongside the Asian Games and the defence of my Wanda Diamond League title.”
Chopra won a silver in the 2022 World Championships in USA after winning gold at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021. He failed to defend his Commonwealth Games gold at the Birmingham edition last year due to an injury, but recovered on time to win the Diamond League Finals in Switzerland. The 2023 Diamond League comprises 14 meetings, starting with Doha at the Qatar Sports Club on May 5 and concluding with a single final across two days in Eugene, USA (September 16-17).
