Neeraj Chopra at Zurich Diamond League: India's World Champion Javelin star finishes second, qualifies for DL Final in Eugene

Zurich, Sep 1: Newly-crowned world champion Neeraj Chopra qualified for the Diamond League finals after finishing second in the Zurich DL Meeting with a throw of 85.71m in the men's javelin event on Thursday (September 31).

While in the men's long jump, Murali Sreeshankar finished fifth with a first-round jump of 7.99m but he managed to book a ticket for the Diamond League Finals. Also Read: Zurich Diamond League 2023 Highlights

Neeraj Chopra Misses Top Spot By A Whisker in Zurich

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. The Indian star thrower wasn't looking in the best of his elements in the evening and three fouls possibly hint that towards the same.

Chopra - who was crowned world champion on Sunday (August 27) with a best throw of 88.17m in Budapest to clinch gold - finished behind Jakub Vadlejch (85.86m) of the Czech Republic, who had won a bronze in the World Championships.

The Indian superstar, who was unbeaten this season before Thursday, however, had no trouble qualifying for the DL finals to be held on September 17 in Eugene, USA, with 23 points from three meets. Chopra had won the Diamond League trophy last year.

Neeraj Chopra's Performance in This Season

He 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 in the finals. He, however, qualified with a throw of 88.77m, which is his season's best, in the Hungarian capital.

Neeraj Chopra opens up on rusty performance in Zurich

While interacting with media persons after finishing second in Switzerland, Chopra admitted that almost every athlete had some sort of exhaustion after the world championship and it reflected on their individual performances tonight as everyone looked rusty.

"The competition wasn't completely up to the mark tonight. I am still happy with my performance. As there are two more crucial competitions (the Diamond League Finals and Asian Games) coming my way, the focus was to stay healthy and not invite any unwanted injuries. I didn't want to push myself a lot, hence I had a sedate start tonight.

"I am happy for Jakub Vadlejch (for finishing at the top) but I am satisfied with my performance as well because in the end, the margin between his and my throws was in centimetres. But that is also part and parcel of the sport and we need to accept the results. Happy that two of my throws were above 85 meters," Chopra said.

After the World Championships gold medal, Neeraj claimed that he was feeling a bit of pain in 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.

The Haryana athlete began with a modest 80.79m 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.

Sreeshankar also in long jump DL finals

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.

(With PTI inputs)