Neeraj Chopra, who expressed his disappointment multiple times for missing the Gold medal, despite clinching a Silver at the Paris Olympics was in a similar state of mind as he recorded his season-best throw of 89.49 metres at the Lausanne meet in Diamond League on Thursday, August 22. Chopra despite not being at his best, slowly amped it up as he went from 82.10m throw in his first attempt to 89.49m in his final but he still missed that elusive 90-metre mark and probably that's why the disappointment.
The moment Neeraj let the javelin go out of his hand for the final attempt, he knew that he had thrown the kitchen sink at it and that it would help him get to second place. As the javelin landed in the sub-89 metres, the 26-year-old had his hands on his head and screamed in frustration because of falling short of that 90-metre mark once again even though his Grenadian counterpart Anderson Peters lauded for Neeraj.
Peters broke the meet record in Lausanne hitting 90.61 metres to clinch the top spot while Neeraj finished second.
Watch the video here:
This was Neeraj's third sub-89m throw in the last 15 days having reached 89.34m and the silver medal-clinching 89.45m marks at the Paris Olympics recently.
The two-time Olympic medallist wasn't at his 100 per cent, which he mentioned after the Silver medal win in Paris, and after his four throws on Thursday which hovered around 82-83 metres, it seemed like he wasn't in his best rhythm but he knew what he was doing.
Neeraj's first 85-plus throw came in his fifth attempt, which helped him get into the top three and give himself a chance to go for a sixth attempt. And as Neeraj came for his sixth, he sealed the second spot and now has 14 points on the Diamond League 2024 table. Overall, Neeraj is on third behind Peters (21) and Jakub Vadlejch (16).
