Star India javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra reached a significant milestone on the night of May 16. In his second javelin competition of 2025, the Doha Diamond League, Neeraj breached the 90m mark for the first time in his career.
The javelin throw competition at the Doha Diamond League was packed with some of the biggest achievers in the sport. A few men that Chopra had to compete with at the Qatar Sports Club were Anderson Peters (an Olympic bronze medalist and a two-time World Champion), Ksheron Wallcott (a former Olympic champion and a Olympic bronze medalist), Jakub Vadlejch (Olympic silver medalist and a a three-time medal winner at the World Championships), Julis Yego (a silver medalist at the Olympics and a former World Champion). Also in the mix was Neeraj’s compatriot Kishore Jena, who won silver at the 2022 Asian Games.
While Neeraj has won nearly everything there is to achieve in his sport, one significant milestone had long eluded him. Despite winning an Olympic gold and silver, as well as a gold and silver at the World Championships, his throws had consistently fallen short of the 90m mark.
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But in Doha, Neeraj in his third attempt, threw the javelin at a distance of 90.23m. With that Neeraj became only the 25th man to go past the 90m mark in all of javelin throw history. The 27-year-old also improved upon his personal best by 29 cms. His previous best throw was in Stockholm, Sweden in June 2022 where he had attained a distance of 89.94m. For further context, the throw that earned him the gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics measured 87.58m.
The 90m+ throw propelled Neeraj into the lead in Doha but the lead was short lived. Germany’s Julian Webber, in his final attempt of the event, came up with a monster throw of 91.06m and claimed the first spot.
The outing in Doha became “bittersweet” for the Indian. After years of missing the 90m mark, when he finally did achieve the landmark, he ended up at second place.
“It is a little bit of a bittersweet result. I am very happy for the 90m…but I am very happy also for Julian. We both broke 90m for the first time today. We have been tying this for so many years, so finally, we managed to get it. ” Chopra said after the event.
Prakhar Sachdeo
The Sportz Planet Desk
