Neeraj misses Diamond Trophy by agonising 1cm, finishes 2nd in javelin final

Javelin throw star Neeraj Chopra, on Saturday, agonisingly missed out on reclaiming the Diamond Trophy he won two years back as he fell short of the title by 1 centimetre at the King Baudouin Stadium in Brussels. His third attempt of 87.86 metres was only behind Granada’s Anderson Peters, who hurled an 87.87 metre throw in his first try. Julian Weber of Germany, with his best attempt of 85.97 metres, finished third.
Neeraj, who added a silver to his Olympic medal tally in Paris following a historic gold in the Tokyo Games, received USD 12,000 for finishing second, while Peters, who claimed the Diamond Trophy for the first time in his career, was given a cash prize of USD 30,000 prize money and a wild card for the World Athletics Championships.
The 26-year-old Indian, who had won the Diamond League trophy in 2022 before finishing second last year, had booked a place in the Brussels final after finishing fourth in the overall DL standings. He secured 14 points from his back-to-back second-place finishes in Doha and Lausanne.
On Saturday, after Anderson, a two-time world champion, set the tone for the final with a title-winning opening attempt of 87.87m, Neeraj looked to match it with a throw of 86.82m in his first try. But his closest effort came in his third attempt, of 87.86m, which was incidentally matched by Anderson on his final try. Neeraj did make one final push for glory in his sixth and last attempt, but was just short by less than one and a half metres.
Chopra has been struggling with his fitness this season and is expected to meet a doctor to rectify a groin injury that has affected him all season and came in the way of his quest to hit the 90m mark.
The Tokyo Olympic champion’s best throw this season came last month in the Laussane leg of the Diamond League, with an attempt of 89.49m, his career second-best, and four centimetres more than his silver-medal-winning attempt in Paris a fortnight before.
He had won the Lausanne leg of the Diamond League in 2022 and 2023 and finished second behind Jakub Vadlejch in the winner-takes-all finale in Eugene, USA, last year.