Neeraj turns mirage into reality

Doha: Neeraj Chopra finally breached the elusive 90m mark with a 90.23m throw but finished second behind Julian Weber of Germany in a dramatic men’s javelin contest at the Doha leg of the prestigious Diamond League Meeting series here on Friday.

Weber turned the tables and took the top spot with his final throw, measuring 91.06m.

The 27-year-old double Olympics medallist Indian sent his spear 90.23m in his third attempt to join a list of javelin throwers, led by his current coach Jan Zelezny of Czechia, who had recorded 90m-plus efforts.

He became the third Asian and 25th overall to achieve the feat. Olympics champion Arshad Nadeem (92.97m) of Pakistan and Chao-Tsun Cheng (91.36m) of Chinese Taipei are the two other Asians to have breached the coveted mark.

At Suhaim bin Hamad Stadium in Doha, five of the 26 javelin throwers with a 90-meter or more record in the world achieved their personal best throw. Two of those five occurred on Friday in the Doha stadium, as Julian Weber threw 91.06 meters and Neeraj Chopra threw 90.23 meters. Prior to Anderson Peters’ 2022 throw of 93.07 meters, German thrower Thomas Rohler had previously thrown 93.90 meters in Doha in 2017. In 2022, Jakub Vadlejch of the Czech Republic threw 90.88 meters in Doha. At Kuartene, Finland, three of the top 26 athletes achieved their personal best. It was Weber’s first 90m-plus effort as well, and he became the 26th javelin thrower to breach the coveted mark. His effort was the world leading mark this season so far.

Two-time world champion and Paris Olympics bronze medallist Anderson Peters of Grenada was third with his opening throw of 84.65m.

“I am very happy to have breached the 90m mark but it’s a bittersweet experience,” Chopra said later.