Indian javelin star Neeraj Chopra produced his best throw in more than a year but finished second after Sri Lanka’s Rumesh Pathirage edged him by just nine centimetres at the Lausanne Diamond League on Friday.<\/p>\n
Chopra’s second-round effort of 88.05m briefly put him on top of the nine-man field before Pathirage responded with 88.14m in the third round. Grenada’s Anderson Peters finished third with 86.69m.<\/p>\n
The 88.05m throw was Chopra’s best since his 88.16m effort while winning the Paris Diamond League in June 2025. It also improved on his previous season-best of 85.83m, recorded while winning silver at the Glasgow Commonwealth Games.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn’t know that it was nine centimetres. It was really close, but I’m happy with the 88-metre throw,\u201d Chopra said after the competition.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo be honest, that 88-metre throw doesn’t feel like it went 88. I felt very relaxed, and that’s why I tried really hard. But later I forgot my technique. I’m really happy with the 88 metres today. With every competition, I’m coming back.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Lausanne result marked the third consecutive competition in which the 23-year-old Pathirage has finished ahead of Chopra this season. The Sri Lankan previously beat him at the Doha Diamond League and Glasgow Commonwealth Games.<\/p>\n
Pathirage has been in exceptional form, winning eight of his nine competitions this season. He has also crossed 90m, producing a season-leading 92.62m in Rome, while his Commonwealth Games-winning throw measured 89.75m.<\/p>\n
Chopra, meanwhile, is continuing his comeback from a lower-back injury that disrupted his preparations. He opened in Lausanne with 83.54m before his 88.05m effort, followed by 83.72m, a no-mark, and 82.15m in his final throw.<\/p>\n
The second-place finish moved Chopra into the top five of the Diamond League season standings. The top six javelin throwers qualify for the September 4-5 Diamond League Finals in Brussels.<\/p>\n
Chopra also praised the atmosphere in Switzerland, where the Lausanne and Zurich crowds have consistently supported athletics.<\/p>\n
\u201cSwitzerland is a beautiful country and people are also really good. I really like the crowd in both competitions. They know about athletics and they are really supportive, so it’s really good to compete here,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Chopra will next have an opportunity to compete in Zurich on August 27, with the Asian Games also on the horizon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Indian javelin star Neeraj Chopra produced his best throw in more than a year but finished second after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":118984,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[9],"tags":[54625,57325,54626,54623,94,10667,11586,58016,58074,54540,58073],"class_list":["post-118983","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-lausanne","tag-diamond-league-2026","tag-diamond-league-finals","tag-indian-athletics","tag-javelin-throw","tag-lausanne","tag-lausanne-diamond-league","tag-neeraj-chopra","tag-neeraj-chopra-88-05m","tag-pathirage-88-14m","tag-rumesh-pathirage","tag-sri-lankan-javelin"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ch\/117138256119428364","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118983","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=118983"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118983\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/118984"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=118983"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=118983"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=118983"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}