Diamond League Final 2023: Neeraj Chopra finishes 2nd with 83.80m effort; Jakub Vadlejch crowned winner

Neeraj Chopra relinquished his hold on the Diamond League crown on Saturday by finishing second in the Final in Eugene. Olympic and world champion Chopra, who had just last month become the first Indian to win World Championships gold, finished second with a best effort of 83.80 metres in his second attempt. Czech Republic’s Jakub Vadlejch, who had finished behind Chopra and Pakistan’s Arshad Nadeem in the World Championships in Budapest last month, clinched the top spot with a best effort of 84.24m in his final attempt.

Well played, champ! 🥈👏#NeerajChopra hits an 83.80 meter throw and yet misses 🥇 by a whisker!#JioCinema #Sports18 #DiamondLeague pic.twitter.com/vOEGqHEzFn

— JioHotstar Reality (@HotstarReality) September 16, 2023

Vadlejch had grabbed the lead in his very first attempt of 84.01m and maintained a stranglehold on the top spot, with no one else in the six-man final able to breach the 84-metre mark. Finland’s Oliver Helander finished third thanks to his effort of 83.74 metres in his third attempt. Chopra’s top effort of 83.80 metres was a far cry from his effort of 88.17 metres that landed him World Championships gold on 27 August, as well as his throw of 88.44m that helped him win last year's Diamond League final in Zurich. The Haryanvi athlete, who currently holds the national record with a personal-best effort of 89.94m, had won two Diamond League meetings earlier this year in Doha and Lausanne respectively. Third crown for Vadlejch The 25-year-old Chopra struggled in the windy conditions in the grand finale at the Hayward Field as he fouled his two attempts. His best throw of the day came in the second attempt. His series read foul, 83.80m, 81.37m, foul, 80.74 and 80.90m. This was his first below 85m throw of the season. He had qualified for the DL Finals at the third spot. He had won the 2022 DL Finals in Zurich with a throw of 88.44m. Vadlejch thus became the Diamond League champion for the third time. He had earlier clinched the DL title in 2017 and 2018. This was the same venue where Chopra had finished second in the 2022 World Championships. He had become only the third javelin thrower in history to hold both the Olympic and World Championships crowns after winning the worlds title in Budapest with a throw of 88.17m. Just a few days after winning the World Championships title, he competed in the Zurich DL leg on 31 August when he finished second behind Vadlejch. Chopra will now head to the Hangzhou Asian Games beginning later this month where he will defend the gold he had won in 2018 in Indonesia. With inputs from PTI