• Neeraj Chopra finishes second in Diamond League Finals

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    Neeraj Chopra finishes second in Diamond League Finals

    The second throw was Chopra's strongest of the day. His scoring range was foul, 83.80m, 81.37m, foul, 80.74, and foul, 80.90m.

    Digital Desk: Olympic and world-champion javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra finished second with a moderate performance of 83.80m on Saturday, failing to defend his Diamond League title.

    The 25-year-old Chopra struggled in the windy conditions during the championship match at Hayward Field and fouled both of his shots. The second throw was his strongest of the day. His scoring range was foul, 83.80m, 81.37m, foul, 80.74, and foul, 80.90m.

    It was his first throw of the season under 85 metres. He had earned a spot in the DL Finals by placing third. He had thrown 88.44 metres to win the 2022 DL Finals in Zurich.

    With his sixth and final try, Jakub Vadlejch of the Czech Republic won the Diamond League for the third time with a best throw of 84.24 metres. His first-round performance of 84.01m put him in the lead over the other five competitors right away.

    Vadlejch, who finished second to Chopra at the Tokyo Olympics and took home silver in the Budapest Worlds, also won the DL title in 2017 and 2018. Chopra had placed second at the 2022 World Championships at this same location.

    Before winning a historic gold at the World Championships last month, the Indian, who has a personal best of 89.94m, won two individual DL competitions in Doha on May 5 and Lausanne on June 30.

    After winning the world championship in Budapest with a throw of 88.17 metres, he became just the third javelin thrower in history to hold both the Olympic and World Championship titles.

    He participated in the Zurich DL leg on August 31, just a few days after winning the World Championships title, and finished second to Vadlejch.

    Chopra will now travel to the Asian Games in Hangzhou, which will start later this month, where he will defend the gold medal he won in Indonesia in 2018.