Neeraj Chopra looks to defend Diamond League trophy in Eugene

Olympic gold medallist and new world champion Neeraj Chopra will be back in action tonight in the 2023 Eugene Diamond League final in Oregon, US. The Indian star athlete, who won a historic World Championship gold in Budapest last month, will be looking to defend his Diamond League Trophy which he won at Zurich in September 2022 with a best throw of 88.44m. Neeraj is the first Indian to win the prestigious Diamond League final title. The Diamond League final in Eugene will bring an end to the 2023 series where top performers across different outdoor track and field meetings after 13 legs will compete. The Indian javelin thrower, who holds the national record of 89.94m, won two Diamond League meetings earlier this year in Doha and Lausanne. Chorpa is also the only Indian athlete to compete in the 2023 final after men’s long jumper Murali Sreeshankar and 3000m steeplechaser Avinash Sable decided to skip the event to prepare for the upcoming Asian Games in Hangzhou, China. Asian Games start on 23 September. If Neeraj manages to defend his title then he will become only the third man to defend the Diamond League final trophy in javelin. The format of the Diamond League however has changed since 2017. The Diamond League which began in 2010 has been following the current format since 2017 in which the top six performers (eight earlier) compete in the grand finale. They qualify for the final on the basis of points accumulated over different legs. Czech Republic’s Vitezslav Vesely won the Diamond Lea­gue in 2012 and 2013, while compatriot Jakub Vadlejch won the trophy in 2016 and 2017. Diamond League final: Men’s javelin throw entry list Neeraj Chopra (India), Oliver Helander (Finland), Andrian Mardare (Moldova), Anderson Peters (Grenada), Curtis Thompson (United States), Jakub Vadlejch (Czech Republic) LIVE streaming: The Eugene Diamond League 2023 Final will be LIVE stremaed on Jio Cinema and TV broadcast will be availablee on the Sports18 TV channel in India. Neeraj Chopra’s event will start at 12:50 AM IST (Sunday, 17 September).