Neeraj Chopra becomes the first Indian to win Diamond League with 88.44 m throw

Olympic champion Neeraj Chopra of India brings proud to the nation by winning the Diamond League in the Javelin throw with the best attempt of 88.44 m. The Diamond League Final 2022 was held in Zurich on Thursday, September 8. Neeraj Chopra had etched his name in history by becoming the first Indian to win the Diamond Trophy, the prestigious title of the Diamond League series Finale in men’s javelin. The 24-year-old had won in the Olympics organized in Tokyo. He threw 88.44m which ended on the top step of the podium. The Indian Javelin star overtook Jakub Vadlejch of the Czech Republics and Julian Webber of Germany in the finals.

While Neeraj began with a foul, Vadlejch took the lead in the first attempt with 84.15m throw. However, Neeraj threw 88.44m in his 2nd attempt to set a margin that could not be crossed by any of his other rivals till the end. His third attempt was recorded as 88.00 m followed by a throw of 86.11 m in the 4th attempt. A throw of 83.60 was recorded in his final attempt. Neeraj has won the Olympic Gold in 2021, the Asian Games Gold in 2018, and Commonwealth Games Gold in 2018, the World Athletics Championships silver in 2022. However, he always dreamt to win the Diamond Trophy to complete the set and also explained the values that are associated with Diamond League events for him. 

This is not the first time that Neeraj entered the diamond league. He had already participated in the league two times. He achieved seventh position in 2017 and fourth position in 2018. Neeraj had achieved his personal best at the Stockholm leg of the Diamond League with an 89.94m throw.  Neeraj made his return to the field through this breathtaking throw in Lausanne after missing the Commonwealth Games due to an injury which he got during the World Athletics Championships in Eugene wherein he threw 88.13m in the final to win a silver medal. Neeraj had finished 4th behind Jakub Vadlech (27 from 4 events), Julian Weber (19 from 3 events), and Anderson Peters (16 from 2 events). Neeraj finished with 15 from 2 events. Each athlete is awarded 8 points for finishing first in a leg of the Diamond League, 7 for finishing 2nd, 6 for finishing 3rd and 5 for finishing 4th.

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