In a dominant display in Zurich on Thursday, German thrower Julian Weber won his first trophy with two throws of 90 meters or more, while two-time Olympic javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra finished second in the Diamond League Finals for the third consecutive year.
After his initial throw of 84.35 meters, Chopra remained in third place until the fifth round. However, his final throw of 85.01 meters moved him up to second place, surpassing Trinidad and Tobago’s Keshorn Walcott, the gold medallist from the 2012 London Olympics, who finished third with 84.95 meters.
Weber’s second try resulted in a personal best throw of 91.57 meters, which led the season. After his initial 91.37-meter performance, he was the only competitor in the seven-man field.
Weber’s greatest attempt of the day was more than 6 meters longer than Chopra’s throw, and none of his competitors could get close to his mark. Following his second throw, the German had fouls of 83.66m, 86.45m, and 88.66m.
In the Diamond League grand finale of the season, Chopra was obviously not playing at his best. Out of six tries, he had three legal throws.
It was a rare occasion for the 27-year-old Indian star, who is known for consistently throwing throws of 88 meters or more, to only reach the 85-meter barrier.
After 2023 and 2024, he finished second for the third time in a row, despite his best efforts to reclaim the trophy he had won in 2022.
Grenada’s Anderson Peters, the reigning champion, finished fourth with a throw of 82.06 meters.
Chopra started with a throw of 84.35 meters, which was out of character for him. After that, he threw the javelin 82 meters away and was called for fouling. At the halfway point, he was in third place. He fouled his fourth and fifth tries before making his final throw, which was an effort of 85.01 meters.
In addition, it was Weber’s third throw of 90 meters or more this season and in his career. He had won the Doha DL title on May 16 and had thrown 91.06 meters, breaking the coveted 90-meter threshold.
Chopra also exceeded the 90m barrier for the first time in Doha with a throw of 90.23m but finished second behind Weber.
Chopra, the reigning champion, will now travel to Tokyo for the World Championships next month.
Weber increased his head-to-head record over Chopra to 3-1 with Thursday’s victory. In May, the German had already defeated Chopra to second place in the Orlen Janusz Kusocinski Memorial event in Chorzow, Poland, and the Doha Diamond League.
Weber finished second in the June Paris Diamond League, which was won by Chopra.
However, in competitions involving the two since 2016, Chopra has a vast 15-5 head-to-head record advantage against Weber. Chopra has not finished outside second place since June 2021, for the record.
He qualified for the finals in Zurich in fourth place with 15 points, despite missing the Diamond League’s Silesia and Brussels legs on August 16 and 22, respectively. The finals in Zurich are open to the top six finishers in the points table from the four meetings.
Chopra participated in just two of the four Diamond League events that included the men’s javelin throw, in Doha in May and Paris in June. He won the title in Paris and came in second in Doha.
Chopra’s last competition was the Neeraj Chopra Classic, which he hosted and won with a throw of 86.18 meters on July 5 in Bengaluru.
