Neeraj Chopra to play in Diamond League finals, check when & where to watch
With a gold medal in Luassane Diamond League and a second-place finish in Stockholm, he is the only athlete representing India in the finals.
New Delhi: Neeraj Chopra, an Indian man with a golden arm, will be playing in the Diamond League finals in Zurich, Switzerland. With a gold medal in Lausanne Diamond League and a second-place finish in Stockholm, he is the only athlete representing India in the finals. If he wins it, he will be the first Indian to win a gold medal in a Diamond League final.
This has been a year for Neeraj, after clinching the gold in Tokyo in 2021, he won a silver medal in the 2022 World Athletics Championships in Oregon. Two medals in the Diamond League and hitting his personal best of 89.94 m were among other achievements of the athlete. With Anderson Peters backing off, Neeraj is the favourite to win the finals.
After Peters, who threw a record 93.07 m in Doha this year, is injured after the attack on him during the part after the Commonwealth Games 2022. Meanwhile, Chopra is expected to get tough competition from Jakub Vadlejch who has a season-best of 90.88 m in 2022. Though Neeraj has surpassed Jakub on various occasions, he will be his biggest competitor. Another world-class thrower Julian Weber, who has a season-best of 89.54 m, will look out to finish at the podium. Leandro Ramos from Portugal and Gailums Patriks from Latvia will also be competing in the event.
When and where to watch?
Men’s Javelin Throw finals will begin at 11:50 pm IST on September 8, while the Diamond League finals will be in action from September 7 onwards. The event will be telecast live on the Sports18 1 and Sports18 1 HD TV channels and will be streaming on Voot on OTT.
Other events to watch out for:
The 100 m and 200 m dashes in both men’s and women’s categories will be interesting to watch. The 2022 men’s 100 m world champion Fred Kerley and USA’s Trayvon Bromell have run several times under the 10 seconds mark, while in the men’s 200 m Noah Lyles, the third fastest man ever, is likely to clinch another gold. The women’s 100 & 200 m are star-studded with Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, Sherika Jackson and Dina-Asher Smith. Fraser-Pryce is running at another level this season with clocking six under 10.6 seconds performances.
In the men’s long jump event Miltiadis Tentoglou, who won five Diamond League golds, will be an athlete to look out for. While Armand Duplantis and Sandi Morris will be the Pole Vaulters who are likely to win the gold. Meanwhile, Femke Bol has been on fire in the women’s 400 m hurdles.