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Zurich, Newly-crowned world champion <keyword id="1115774" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="neeraj-chopra" source="Orion">Neeraj Chopra</keyword> missed out on a top podium finish to settle for second position with a final round throw of 85.71 metres in the men's javelin event of the <keyword id="74857" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="diamond-league" source="Orion">Diamond League</keyword> Meeting here. The 25-year-old Chopra, also the reigning Olympic champion, produced three legal throws of 80.79m, 85.22m and 85.71m while the remaining three were fouls. He finished behind Jakub Vadlejch (85.86m) of Czech Republic, who had won a bronze in the World Championships. The champion thrower said after the event on Thursday that physically he was feeling "very good" but was a little tired after the World Championships in Budapest, where he won gold. "I feel very good now, because everyone is a little tired after the World Championships. We gave our 100 per cent there (in Budapest), but for this competition here my focus was to just stay healthy, and we have to focus now for Eugene (Diamond League finals on September 17) and then the (Hangzhou) Asian Games (from September 23). The Indian superstar, who was unbeaten this season before Thursday, qualified for the Diamond League finals in Eugene, USA, with 23 points from three meets. He had won the Diamond League trophy last year. Chopra has qualified for Diamond League finals at third spot behind Jakub Vadlejch (29 points) and Julian Weber (25 points). The Indian was third because he missed the Monaco leg of the Diamond League due to injury concerns, while Jakub and Weber participated. Chopra had won the Diamond League meetings in Doha (May 5) and Lausanne (June 30) -- his only two competitions before winning a historic gold in the World Championships in Budapest on Sunday with a throw of 88.17m. The Tokyo Olympics gold medallist indicated he didn't exert himself too much in Zurich order to be able to give his cent percent in the upcoming competitions. During the pre-event press conference here, Chopra had said that he was feeling a bit of pain on his shoulder and back after winning gold in the World Championships. He was not 100 per cent fit during the showpiece event due to a groin strain he had sustained while training in May-June. "For me, the focus was just to stay healthy and to give my 100 per cent in my next competitions. Sometimes we need to read our body. Today, I feel OK, I am 100 per cent OK, but I did not push too much. "Sometimes, our number one goal is to stay healthy. Today, I gave it my best but still with the focus to stay healthy. I usually do my winter training in Europe, because it is a lot easier to travel, that's why I spent some time in Loughborough (England) for some months before competing in Budapest this summer," added Chopra. Chopra began with a modest 80.79m throw here, which put him in the second spot but he fouled the next two throws to slip to fifth at the halfway stage when Germany's Julian Weber was leading. But Chopra pulled off 85.22m in his fourth attempt which saw him rise to second. By that time, Vadlejch had taken the lead. Chopra fouled his fifth throw again but achieved his best of the day -- 85.71m -- in his last throw. Chopra's next target would be to lift the Diamond League champion's trophy in Eugene on September 17. He had won the trophy last year. This Diamond League final will be a winner-takes-all affair with no points being carried forward from the Diamond League legs this season. There are four Diamond League individual legs before finals in each event, with the prize money different for each leg and the finals. Chopra got US USD 6,000 for his efforts in Zurich, while the winner earned US USD 12,000. The top six qualify for finals in field events. The winner in the finals at Eugene will be richer by USD 30,000, while the runner-up and third-place finishers will earn USD 12000 and USD 7000. In men's long jump, <keyword id="6915162" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="murali-sreeshankar" source="Orion">Murali Sreeshankar</keyword> finished fifth here with a first-round jump of 7.99m. He also qualified for the Diamond League finals in third place on the standings with 14 points. Sreeshankar, who had failed to qualify for the finals in the just-concluded World Championships in Budapest, led the field after the first round. But, he slowly slipped out of the top three as he could not improve upon his first round jump. He was third till the end of the third round but slipped to fifth in the fourth and remained there till the end. Olympic and world champion Miltiadis Tentoglou of Greece won gold with a sixth and final round jump of 8.20m.

World champion Neeraj Chopra finishes second in Zurich; happy with effort

Budapest, <keyword id="96627" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="olympic-champion" source="Orion">Olympic champion</keyword> <keyword id="1115774" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="neeraj-chopra" source="Orion">Neeraj Chopra</keyword> on Sunday scripted history yet again as he became the first Indian to win a <keyword id="28217" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="gold-medal" source="Orion">gold medal</keyword> in the <keyword id="124430" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="world-athletics-championships" source="Orion">World Athletics Championships</keyword> with a best throw of 88.17m in the men's javelin final here. In another first, three Indians finished in top eight with Kishore Jena (84.77m) and DP Manu (84.14m) taking the fifth and sixth spots respectively. Never before did three Indians finish in top eight of an event in the World Championships. The 25-year-old Chopra dominated the competition and achieved his best throw of the day in his second attempt. He had a foul to start with, but then got 88.17m, 86.32m, 84.64m, 87.73m and 83.98m. Pakistan's reigning Commonwealth Games champion Arshad Nadeem took the silver with his season's best throw of 87.82m, while Jakub Vadlejch (86.67m) of Czech Republic got the bronze. Olympic champion Chopra began with a foul but jumped to top spot with his second throw, and from thereon, he led the field till the end. Nadeem also maintained his second position from the third round after which it was 1-2 for the Indo-Pak duo till the end. Chopra thus beat Nadeen once again as the Indian also won gold in the 2016 South Asian Games. Since then, the two have competed against each other in more than a dozen events and Chopra always returned triumphant. Chopra has now become only the second Indian -- after legendary shooter Abhinav Bindra -- to simultaneously hold the Olympics and World Championships title. Bindra won the World Championships title when he was 23, and the Olympics gold at 25. Chopra, who had become the first Indian Olympic track and field gold medallist in the Tokyo Games in 2021, had won a silver in the 2022 edition of the World Championships. Before him, legendary long jumper Anju Bobby George had won a bronze in the 2003 World Championships. The Indian superstar also became only the third javelin thrower in history to simultaneously hold the Olympics and World Championships titles after the iconic Jan Zelezny of Czech Republic and Andreas Thorkildsen of Norway. Zelezny clinched the Olympics gold in 1992, 1996 and 2000 while winning World Championships title in 1993, 1995 and 2001. Thorkildsen won gold in the 2008 Olympics and the 2009 World Championships. With his feat on Sunday, Chopra has won every title his sport has to offer. He has won gold in the Asian Games (2018) and Commonwealth Games (2018), besides four individual Diamond League Meeting titles (two each in 2022 and 2023) and Diamond League champion's trophy last year. He also became junior world champion in 2016 and won the Asian Championships title in 2017. Meanwhile, the Indian men's 4x400m relay team raised hopes of a historic medal after finishing second overall in the heats with Asian record time of 2 minute 59.51 seconds on Saturday. But, in the final on Sunday, the quartet of Muhammed Anas Yahiya, Amoj Jacob, Muhammed Ajmal Variyathodi and Rajesh Ramesh could do no better than finish a creditable fifth with a time of 2:59.92. Parul Chaudhary created a national record of 9 minute 15.31 seconds while finishing 11th in women's 3000m steeplechase final. The earlier record was held by Lalita Babar (9:19.76) who had finished eighth in the final of the 2015 World Championships. Chopra's gold on the last day of competitions brought cheers to the Indian camp after an underwhelming start. Except for the performances of Chopra, Jena, Manu, Parul Chaudhary, the men's 4x400m relay team and Jeswin Aldrin (11th in men's long jump final), the World Championships outing was mediocre for the remaining Indians. Long jumper Murali Sreeshankar and 3000m steeplechaser Avinash Sable were tipped to be the best performers after Chopra but both failed to qualify for the finals in their respective events, much to the disappointment of the Indian camp. In the 2022 edition, apart from the silver won by Chopra, five other Indians had made it to the finals. In the last edition of the showpiece, Chopra was beaten by Anderson Peters of Grenada for the gold. The Indian had settled for a landmark silver then with a best throw of 88.13m in the final to become only the second from the country and first male track and field athlete to win a medal in the World Championships. Peters, who had won gold in 2019 also, could not make it to Sunday's final after he failed to even touch the 80m mark in Friday's qualification round which Chopra topped with his single throw of 88.77m. It was a tense start as Chopra fouled his first throw but he roared back with 88.17m in his second effort to jump to the top. He had 86.32m in his third attempt. Chopra led the field at the end of the first three rounds when the bottom four out of the 12 competitors were eliminated. By then, Pakistan's Arshad Nadeem catapulted himself to second spot with a third round throw of 87.82m. DP Manu also moved up to fifth while Jena too made the top eight at seventh after three rounds. Germany's Julian Weber was third after the first three rounds but Vadlejch grabbed the bronze medal with his fifth round throw of 86.67m. There was no change in the top two as Nadeem could not better his third round throw of 87.82m, though he came close to it in the fourth round with 87.15m. He fouled his fifth attempt and by the time the Pakistani sent his spear to just 81.86m in his sixth and final attempt, the gold was assured for Chopra. The Indian took the final throw but could come up with only 83.98m which, however, was inconsequential.

Neeraj Chopra scripts history yet again, becomes first Indian to win gold in World Athletics Championships

(Eds: Recasting intro, restructuring, minor edits) New Delhi, Apr 17 () Confused and anxious about what the future might hold, national record-holding long jumper Murali Sreeshankar says he is enduring a "painful wait" to get another shot at Olympic qualification after the COVID-19 pandemic threw his plans haywire. The 21-year-old Sreeshankar was at NIS-Patiala last month for the first leg of the Indian Grand Prix, a recognised event for Tokyo Olympics qualification, but it was cancelled just hours before start on the directives of the government. "I went all the way from Kerala to Patiala for the Indian GP 1 but the evening before the event, it got cancelled. It was disappointing but I was fortunate in a way that I could get back home just in time before the lockdown and cancellation of all domestic flights," Sreeshankar told from his home in Palakkad, Kerala. Later, the Federation Cup Senior National Championships (April 10-13), also an Olympic qualifying event, was postponed too due to the worsening health crisis which has led to the death of more than 400 people in India and nearly 1.5 lakh worldwide. With the qualification period suspended till November end by World Athletics, Sreeshankar said he feels completely in disarray. "The whole season is over now and the qualification period begins only in December. There will not be much activity in the winter season and we have to start in February-March next year. It will be a long and painful wait," he said. Making it to the Olympics will not be easy for the Kerala youngster as he has never touched 8.22m, the qualifying mark for the Tokyo Games. He has a personal best of 8.20m which he achieved in 2018 during the National Open in Bhubaneswar. "I was in very good shape and form and was looking to clear 8.22m in the Indian GP in the first leg itself. But now I don't know what will happen next year. I have to start from scratch, it will be very challenging," he said. Sreeshankar is hoping for some action to resume this year to build the momentum for next year. The Athletics Federation of India (AFI) is planning to hold National Championships in September-October if the situation gets better. "Because of the lockdown, I am not doing anything except for some workout on the terrace of my house. The jumping pit near my place, where I used to train, has been out of reach...," he explained. "Now I am not thinking about any training but about when this pandemic will be controlled or some vaccine is available. The situation is fluid, don't know what will happen after the lockdown is lifted. "When training will begin and whether we will have this disease at the back of our mind even then. It is very confusing and uncertain," he added. Asked how else he keeps himself occupied during the lockdown, Sreeshankar said, "I watch some movies on Netflix, I listen to music and read my BSc. Honours books and surf internet." Sreeshankar, described as a bright student by his father S Murali, is now in the fourth semester of his BSc Honours (Mathematics) course at Government Victoria College in Palakkad. PDS ATK PM PM

Lockdown diaries: long jumper Sreeshankar says it's a painful wait for Olympic qualification

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World champion Neeraj Chopra finishes second in Zurich; happy with effort

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Neeraj Chopra scripts history yet again, becomes first Indian to win gold in World Athletics Championships

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Lockdown diaries: long jumper Sreeshankar says it's a painful wait for Olympic qualification

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