Tokyo Olympic gold medalist Neeraj Chopra has become the first Indian to win the prestigious Zurich Diamond League Final 2022 in Switzerland.
Key Points
- Neeraj Chopra started with a foul but rose to the top spot with a throw of 88.44m – the fourth best of his career – in his second attempt, and it turned out to be his winning effort. He did 88.00m, 86.11m, 87.00m and 83.60m in his next four throws.
- Chopra was also awarded the Diamond Trophy, prize money of US$30,000 and a wild card for the 2023 World Athletics Championships in Budapest, Hungary.
- Czech Olympic silver medalist Jakob Vadlge finished second with a best throw of 86.94m, which he recorded in his fourth attempt. Germany’s Julian Weber finished third with 83.73m.
Neeraj Chopra
He is an Indian track and field athlete competing in javelin throw. He has become the first track and field athlete to win an Olympic gold medal for India and second Olympic athletics to win for India after Norman Pritchard, who won two silver medals at 1900 Summer Olympics for India.
He was inducted as Junior Commissioned Officer (JCO) in Rajputana Rifles of Indian Army in 2016. He made his debut at 2018 Commonwealth Games and 2018 Asian Games, where he was the opening flag-bearer. In both the games, he won gold medals.