Neeraj seals gold at the Ostrava meet
The two-time Olympic medallist produced a best effort of 85.29m to win the event ahead of South Africa’s Douw Smit
New Delhi: Four days after winning the Paris Diamond League with a throw of 88.16m, reigning world champion Neeraj Chopra won the Ostrava Golden Spike Meet -- a World Athletics Continental Tour (Gold level) meeting -- on his maiden appearance on Tuesday.
Chopra, a two-time Olympic medallist, produced a best effort of 85.29m to win the event ahead of South Africa’s Douw Smit, who threw a personal best of 84.12m, and Grenada’s Anderson Peters whose best effort of the night was a below-par 83.63m.
The reigning world champion opened the competition with a foul but recorded 83.45m on his next attempt to jump to third spot behind Smit and Peters’ first throw of 83.63m. Chopra then ramped it up with a 85.29m effort to jump into the lead, an advantage he didn’t cede for the remainder of the competition.
Coached by local legend Jan Zelezny, who watched the proceedings quietly from the sidelines as he was also the tournament director for the event, Chopra didn’t appear to exert himself but seemed unimpressed with most of his throws. The sequence of his four legal throws read 83.45m, 85.29m, 82.17m, and 81.01m. It was not the kind of series one hs come to expect of Chopra but the two-time Olympic medallist ensured he had done enough to maintain his supreme consistency.
The nine-man competition was clearly not of the same pedigree as the stacked field that showed up in Paris last week, but in Rio Olympics champion Thomas Rohler and Paris Games bronze medallist Peters, Chopra had athletes who could push him. While Peters did flicker briefly, Rohler, who has been on the sidelines for a while now, could only register a best of 79.18m to finish seventh.
This was Chopra’s fifth competition in a space of three months. He had opened the season by winning the Potch Invitational Meet in April before competing in Doha, Poland, Paris, and Ostrava.
Defending champion and the man who has beaten Chopra twice this year, Germany’s Julian Weber, did not participate here as did local hero Jakub Vadlejch who had finished second in 2024.
Chopra breached the 90m barrier last month with an effort of 90.23m at Doha Diamond League where Weber’s 91.06m pipped him. A week on, Chopra turned up at the Janusz Kusocinski Memorial in Poland where he logged 84.14m to once again finish second to Weber who threw 86.12m.
Chopra next lined up at the Paris leg of Diamond League -- a competition where five of the eight participants had thrown 90m or more -- and secured the top spot with his very first throw of the night while Weber finished second.
The Indian athletics’ poster boy will be next in action at the Neeraj Chopra Classic on July 5 in Bengaluru, an event that will witness some of the best javelin talents from across the world.
Speaking ahead of the competition, the 27-year-old had spelled out his biggest target of the year -- defending his World Championships crown in Tokyo this September.
“I am really happy to work with such a great athlete and coach. I’ve already thrown 90m this year after a little bit more improvement in technique. So let’s see when it comes next time but I am ready,” he had said.
