IMAGE: India’s Neeraj Chopra in action at the Golden Spike meet in Ostrava, Czech Republic, on Tuesday. Photograph: David W Cerny/Reuters
Indian javelin throw superstar Neeraj Chopra on Tuesday clinched the title at the Golden Spike meet in his maiden appearance in Ostrava, Czech Republic, his back-to-back win in a top-class competition.
Fresh from his Paris Diamond League win on June 20, Chopra emerged on top in a nine-man field though with a modest effort of 85.29m in the World Athletics Continental Tour Gold event.
Douw Smit of South Africa was second with his second round throw of 84.12m while two-time world champion Anderson Peters of Grenada was third with his opening attempt of 83.63m.
Chopra was at third at the end of the second round after opening with a foul before a 83.45m throw. But he jumped to the top spot with his third-round effort of 85.29m. He recorded 82.17m and 81.01m in his next two throws before fouling his final attempt.
German Thomas Rohler, the gold winner in the 2016 Rio Olympics, finished seventh with a poor throw of 79.18m. The 30-year-old has been struggling for some time.
In the absence of Chopra’s German rival Julian Weber, the field in Ostrava was thin and the double Olympic-medallist Indian was the favourite for the title.
The 27-year-old Chopra was not at his best even though his coach Zelezny was present close to him inside the throw area as the Czech legend was the event director of the meet held in his home country.
Chopra had skipped the last two editions of Golden Spike — an event that his coach Zelezny won nine times in a storied career — due to fitness issues.
He has had an impressive season so far, having won his first Diamond League title in two years in Paris after also breaching the elusive 90m mark during his second place finish in Doha DL in May.
Chopra must be happy to win the title as the Golden Spike was world record holder Zelezny’s happy hunting ground during his playing days. The Czech legend, now 59, won nine titles between 1986 and 2006 — few of them with 90m-plus throws — in this prestigious event which was first held in 1961.
Chopra has competed in Ostrava in the past but not at Golden Spike. He was part of the Asia Pacific team that competed in the IAAF Continental Cup in 2018 and had finished sixth with a throw of 80.24m.
After winning the Paris DL, he had spoken about the need to work on his core muscles for better control on his throws after admitting that his run-up was perhaps a shade too fast.
Weber had beaten Chopra in Doha DL on May 16 and in Janusz Kusocinski Memorial meet on May 23 in Poland but the Indian upstaged him in Paris on June 20 with his first round throw of 88.16m.
Before Paris, Chopra had won his last DL title in Lausanne in June 2023 with a throw of 87.66m.
Chopra’s next competition will the NC Classic which he is hosting in Bengaluru on July 5 where Peters and Rohler will also be seen in action.
