The day has finally come as Neeraj Chopra, India's golden boy will return to the field after a break of over a month at the Lausanne Diamond League 2023 in Switzerland. Chopra has been out of action owing to a muscle strain he sustained during training last month and pulled out from three world events in June - FBK Games in the Netherlands (June 4), Paavo Nurmi Games in Finland (June 13) and the Ostrava Golden Spike 2023 in the Czech Republic (June 27).
The Lausanne competition will be the sixth in the Diamond League Athletics meet series this year and second after Doha, with the Javelin event in it. Chopra won the Doha meet with the longest throw on his very first attempt, 88.67 metres. Chopra came in touching distance of his personal best, 89.97 which he achieved at the Stockholm Diamond League in Sweden last year.
Chopra is currently at the top of the Diamonds League points table with eight points to his name and will hope to extend his lead in Switzerland as well on his way to his title defence. The 25-year-old won the Diamond League final last year in Zurich and will hope to replicate the feat as he moves closer to competing in the Asian Games.
Neeraj's toughest competitor at Lausanne will be Czech Republic's Jakub Vadlejch, the Tokyo Olympics silver medallist who is coming off winning the Paavo Nurumi Games. Vadlejch finished second with a throw of 88.63 at Doha behind Neeraj.
Along with Chopra, another Indian track and field athlete who will be in action will be the long-jumper Murali Sreesankar. Sreesankar finished third recently in Paris with an 8.09-metre jump and will hope to go better in Lausanne on Friday.
When and where to watch Neeraj Chopra's javelin throw event in India?
The Lausanne Diamond League will be live telecasted on TV by Sports18 and the live streaming of the event will be on the JioCinema app and website. While Sreesankar's long jump event begins at 12:05 AM IST on Saturday, July 1, Chopra's javelin event will roughly start around 12:18 AM IST after midnight.
