 "Diamond League 2025 Final: Weber outshines Chopra as gap at the top widens in men’s javelin")
Another tournament, another second-place finish.
For the third time in a row in Diamond League Finals, two-time Olympic medallist Neeraj Chopra has finished as the second-best athlete in men’s javelin throw . The circumstances, however, couldn’t be more different this time around.
It was the Czech Republic’s Jakub Vadlejch who denied him the title by a matter of 0.44 metres in Eugene, USA, in 2023. The following year in Brussels, Chopra would suffer another heartbreak by finishing a solitary centimetre short of Grenada’s Anderson Peters in the 2024 Diamond League Final.
Fast-forward to Thursday, 28 August. Chopra wasn’t the outright favourite to pull off a victory in the 2025 Diamond League Final at Zurich’s Stadion Letzigrund – the venue where he had pulled off his only DL Final triumph three years ago.
The 27-year-old Indian had won the event with an 88.44m throw back then, but with Germany’s Julian Weber in the kind of form that he has been in this season, as well as the presence of defending champion Peters, 2012 Olympic champion Keshorn Walcott, among others meant Chopra had his task cut out as far as adding to his trophy collection was concerned.
Neither Chopra nor his fans, however, would have expected to witness Weber dominate the 2025 DL final the way he did on Thursday with a clinical performance that sends a message to the rest of the javelin community – that the veteran’s still got it.
Impact Shorts
More ShortsWeber obliterates his competition in Zurich
Unlike his previous second-place finishes in the Diamond League finals, there was hardly any contest for the top spot in Zurich on Thursday. Weber, who had denied Chopra a victory in Doha in May even as India’s golden boy finally breached the 90-metre mark for the first time in his career, had laid down the marker with a throw of 91.37m – his personal best – in his very first attempt.
That was a good seven metres clear of Chopra’s first attempt that measured 84.35m. Weber, however, was by no means done, as he covered an even greater distance in his second attempt, his throw measuring 91.57 metres. With back-to-back 90-metre throws, the 31-year-old German highlighted the fact that he wasn’t just a favourite for the DL title in Switzerland’s largest city, but was on top of the world for now.
World lead for Weber!
— Wanda Diamond League (@Diamond_League) August 28, 2025
Julian Weber wins the javelin with a monster PB of 91.51m.
That's the furthest throw ever at a #DLFinal💎 #ZurichDL🇨🇭 #DiamondLeague
📷 @chiaramontesan2 pic.twitter.com/pLHpb6pDa1
As for Chopra, his evening would go from bad to worse, with his second attempt measuring 82 metres and the two-time Olympic medallist registering a hat-trick of fouled attempts thereafter. Forget Weber, Chopra was trailing 2012 London Olympic champion Walcott of Trinidad and Tobago heading into the final round of attempts, and faced the prospect of finishing outside the top two for the first time since June 2021.
In the end, the Indian managed to beat Walcott to the runner-up spot with an 85.01m throw in his final attempt, which was less than what he needed to win the inaugural Neeraj Chopra Classic (86.18m) in Bengaluru last month.
Weber, on the other hand, established a clear gulf between himself and the rest of the field by registering the top four throws, including 88.66m in his final attempt. His performance was reminiscent of how Nadeem had driven home the point that he deserved to be crowned the Olympic champion by breaching the 90-metre mark twice in the ‘City of Light’ last year.
The gulf between the top-two in Paris, however, was nowhere as wide as it was it was in Zurich; Chopra, after all, had finished second with a best effort of 89.45m, which was nearly two metres further than his 87.58m throw that had helped him become India’s first Olympic champion in athletics in Tokyo four years ago.
Weber, meanwhile, was nowhere close to the podium in Paris last year, finishing sixth despite registering a best throw of 87.40m. This makes his dominant performance on Thursday all the more impressive, signalling just how brilliant he has been in turning things around at an age when athletes usually find it difficult to perform at their peak level.
Chopra no longer a favourite at the World Championships?
Chopra had just about achieved it all after winning a historic gold in the 2023 World Athletics Championships in Budapest, achieving the rare feat of simultaneously being the Olympic and world champion.
Chopra has experienced a slight decline – by his own lofty standards, one would add – since the highs of August 2023. And after watching the Olympic gold slip out of his grasp last year, Chopra faces a Herculean challenge in his quest to win back-to-back world titles in Tokyo next month.
Weber just pulled off the biggest victory of his career, and certainly will be hungry to keep the party going heading into the Japanese capital next month. And judging by his current form, it wouldn’t be too far-fetched to label him the title favourite.
Chopra, however, remains in high spirits despite his relatively lacklustre display in Zurich – which was all the more disappointing given he had skipped the Silesia and Brussels meets to keep himself fresh.
“I still managed in the last attempt over 85m throw. But the timing was not so good today. The run-up was not so good. There is something I didn’t find today,” Chopra said on Thursday, reflecting on his performance in the Diamond League final.
“This was not too bad. But we are getting very close to the World Championships, so I still need to throw a little bit further,” he added.
The armyman insisted that despite how things unfolded in Zurich, things would be different in Tokyo.
“Julian is a good friend of mine, and I am always happy when he is doing well. We push each other.
“There will be some friends from India coming to cheer for me in Tokyo. I have some friends who live there too. At major championships, the gold is more important than the far throws. So I will try my best to win the medal. Everything will be different in Tokyo,” Chopra signed off.
The World Championships will be taking place from 13 to 21 September, with the men’s javelin qualification and final taking place on the 17th and 18, respectively. Let’s see how Chopra and his coach Jan Zelezny – who had replaced Dr Klaus Bartonietz in the role last November – are able to turn things around over the course of the next couple of weeks heading into Tokyo.
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