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The athlete with the most points at the end of the Diamond League cycle, held at 12 different venues – men’s javelin at four – and the final in Zurich will receive a diamond trophy and $40,000.
Anticipation is mounting as star javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra battles for a medal at next month’s World Championships in Eugene. If the first Indian track and field athlete to win gold at the Olympics also becomes world champion, it will mark the pinnacle of his career and the first time a man has held both titles at the same time since Norway’s Andreas Thorkildsen in 2009. Thorkildsen followed in the footsteps of legendary Czech Jan Železný, a three-time Olympic champion who completed doubles by winning the gold medal at the World Championships in 2001, having won the Summer Games title a year earlier.
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Chopra has ambitious plans for this year and they include winning the Diamond League, a series of one-day events, each lasting just two hours, launched in 2010 to promote athletics around the world.
The athlete with the most points at the end of the Diamond League cycle, held at 12 different venues – men’s javelin at four – and the final in Zurich will receive a diamond trophy and $40,000. Most importantly, the Diamond League champion earns the right to be the most consistent athlete. Within days of the curtain falling on the World Cup, 24-year-old Chopra will be back on the Birmingham catwalk to defend his gold at the Commonwealth Games. His schedule is packed as three days after the end of the CWG he will be in Monaco for the Diamond League event.
The Mediterranean principality is a key stop on the Diamond League calendar for Chopra, and his departure will hurt his chances of becoming the Diamond League champion. Chopra has said he will decide to travel to Monaco based on how his body is feeling in Birmingham. That call is almost a month away.
Chopra’s search for the cut for this year’s final in Zurich begins on Thursday evening in the Diamond League in Stockholm. In the Olympic Stadium in the Swedish capital, he also gets the opportunity to check the box. He has never won a Diamond League event in seven previous attempts. He had qualified for the final twice and was 7th in 2017 (83.30m) and fourth a year later (85.87m).
After Stockholm, Chopra has scheduled Monaco (August 10) and Lausanne (August 26) as his next two stops in the Diamond League. Stockholm offers an interesting fight as it is the first time since the Tokyo Summer Games that the current Olympic medalists – Chopra and Jakub Vadlejch (silver) and Vítězslav Vesely (bronze) of the Czech Republic – will face off in the same competition.
In addition to the two Czechs, Chopra also has to compete with Anderson Peters from Grenada, the defending champion. Peters has a season and personal best of 93.07 meters but finished behind Chopra at the Paavo Nurmi Games in Turku and the Kuortane Games. There will also be the outstanding presence of Finland’s Oliver Helander. The 1.80m tall 25-year-old beat Chopra to gold in Turku and is an unpopular horse at the World Championships as he is a medal contender with a personal best of 89.93m. Chopra’s good friend and biggest star before the Tokyo Olympics, Johannes Vetter, is not in the fight. Vetter has competed in just one event this season in Offenburg in May and the big question is if he’s in shape for the World Championships.
Chopra has thrown smoothly in the two competitions he has competed in to date. In Turku he won silver and set a new national record with 89.30 meters. Four days later, in slippery conditions in Kuortane, he won gold with 86.69 meters. Chopra had slipped awkwardly but was not injured.
“Tough weather conditions but happy with my first win of the season here in Kuortane. I’m feeling good and looking forward to starting my Diamond League season at @BAUHAUSGALAN on the 30th,” Chopra tweeted after Kuortane.
A first win in his first Diamond League event in four years will set him up perfectly for the World Athletics Championships.
Chopra at the Diamond League Finals:
Venue Distance Pos. Date
Monaco 78.92m July 7, 2017
Paris 84.67m July 5, 2017
Zurich* 83.80 m August 7, 2017
Doha 87.43m, May 4, 2018
Eugene 80.81m May 6, 2018
Rabat 83.32m, July 5, 2018
Zurich* 85.73 m August 4, 2018
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