Tuesday at the Paavo Nurmi Games 2024 athletics meet in Turku, Finland, will include the men’s javelin throw discipline, where reigning Olympic and world champion Neeraj Chopra will compete.
Neeraj, who is playing in his third event of the season, will be the centre of attention.
With an 88.36-meter throw in his season opener, the current world champion placed second in the Doha Diamond League. In May, he won the gold in the Federation Cup in Bhubaneswar, his first competition in India since the Tokyo Olympics.
The 26-year-old Indian javelin thrower is registered for the Paavo Nurmi Games 2024, but he withdrew from the Ostrava Golden Spike athletics meet in Czechia late last month due to an injury.
The gold medallist from Tokyo 2020 will get a chance to compete against a star-studded field in Turku, which includes Max Dehning, a 19-year-old German.
At the Winter Throwing Championships in Halle in February, Dehning recorded a throw of 90.20 metres, making him the youngest javelin thrower to join the 90-meter club. In his career, Neeraj has not yet reached the 90-meter mark. His personal best of 89.94 metres holds the national record for men’s javelin throw in India. Additionally competing in Turku are 2012 Olympic winner Keshorn Walcott of Trinidad and Tobago and two-time world champion Anderson Peters of Grenada. Oliver Helander of Finland is competing as well; in the Paavo Nurmi Games in 2022, he defeated Neeraj to take the gold medal.However, World Championship silver medallist Arshad Nadeem of Pakistan and Olympic silver medalist Jakub Vadlejch of Czechia, who defeated Neeraj in the Doha Diamond League last month, have withdrawn from this competition. (ANI)
Topics #Athletics #Neeraj Chopra Competing #Paavo Nurmi Games #world champion
