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
9 Responses
Very interesting “Bittersweet” for Javelin throw Champion Neeraj Chopra breaking his own record and crossing 90 M mark for first time in Doha Dimond League.
Well presented……. Why ” Bittersweet” feeling.
Keep it up
Well presented and very interesting article.
Neeraj Chopra made history at the 2025 Doha Diamond League by becoming the 25th javelin thrower globally and the third Asian athlete to breach the 90m mark. He achieved this milestone with a throw of 90.23m in his third attempt, surpassing his previous personal best of 89.94m. Despite this achievement, Neeraj finished second behind Germany’s Julian Weber.
Neeraj described his achievement as “bittersweet,” expressing happiness for both his own milestone and Julian Weber’s achievement. Both athletes had been striving to breach the 90m mark for years, and Neeraj congratulated Weber on his success.
Neeraj Chopra is one of India’s best athlete. Also thank you for your continued support to The Sportz Planet.
Very interesting and thrilling article about Neeraj Chopra making India proud, by breaching the 90m mark in Javlin THROW competition at Doha.Looking forward to Prakhar Sachdeo’s next article!!
Thank you!
Thanks for the update, Prakhar. Happy to he is further improving.
Thank you
Excellent presentation
Excellent presentation