Lausanne Diamond League 2024: Neeraj Chopra earns second spot despite injury issues

India's javelin and athletics star Neeraj Chopra secured second place in the Lausanne Diamond League 2024 with a season-best throw of 89.49m. in Lausanne on Friday. This was the second-best throw of his entire career.

With this throw, Neeraj now has surpassed his record of 89.45m at the Paris Olympics 2024 which earned him a silver medal and made him the most successful individual Olympian of India.

After this second place, Neeraj moved to the number three position in the Diamond League. The Diamond League has four meetings of Javelin events and after three meetings, Anderson Peters and Jakub Vadlejch have qualified for the finals.

Read Also: Every Neeraj Chopra record you should know

Before the Lausanne Diamond League, Neeraj was placed at number fourth place despite not participating in the Paris Diamond League. The fourth event of Diamond Lague will take place on 5 September 2024 in Zurich, Switzerland. 

The top six athletes after the fourth meeting will qualify for the Diamond League final, set to take place on 13-14th September in Burselles. 

Neeraj looked a tad shaky with the groin injury still bothering him and waited for the last throw to unleash his full potential. After four throws of 82.10m, 83.21m, 83.13m, and 82.34m, Neeraj managed an 85.58m throw to qualify for the sixth throw. Anderson Peters threw a season-best and meeting record of 90.6m to challenge and bring the best out of Neeraj.

The former Olympic champion gave his everything to throw 89.49m and earn second place. 

𝐇𝐞 𝐢𝐬 𝐇𝐈𝐌 🔥

Despite a groin injury and being behind by till the last throw, #NeerajChopra throws 89.49m to earn the second spot in #LausanneDiamondLeague

He is currently at number three position in qualifications. Top six athletes will qualify for final.#DiamondLeague pic.twitter.com/kztMerfi1l

— Sportz Point (@sportz_point) August 22, 2024

Did You Know This?

Neeraj has competed in 17 events since winning the Gold medal Tokyo Olympics and won 9 of them. The other eight times, he's finished second. In those events, he's gone below the 85m mark only once

Lausanne Diamond League 2024 final results

Diamond League Qualifiers Standing after 3/4 meetings