Chopra targets Paris DL win after runner-ups

Paris

Neeraj Chopra will be targeting his first major title of the season as he returns to the Paris Diamond League on June 20, following two consecutive second-place finishes. The star Indian javelin thrower is set to compete in the Paris DL after an eight-year gap, having skipped last year’s edition to focus on the Olympics. Chopra last participated in Paris in 2017 as a junior world champion, finishing fifth with a throw of 84.67m.

While the complete list of competitors is yet to be announced, organisers have confirmed that Chopra and Grenada’s two-time world champion Anderson Peters will be among five athletes who have crossed the 90m mark. "Javelin throwers Neeraj Chopra, a double Olympic medalist, and Anderson Peters, a double world champion, are among five entrants who have already crossed the 90m line in a competition that promises to be a crazy one," organisers said.

Peters finished third behind Chopra at both the Doha Diamond League on May 16 and the Janusz Kusocinski Memorial in Poland on May 23. Chopra started his 2025 season with a win at an invitational event in South Africa, throwing 84.52m. He then breached the 90m mark with a 90.23m throw in Doha but finished behind Germany’s Julian Weber, who won with 91.06m. Chopra again took second place behind Weber in Poland with 84.14m.

Following Paris, Chopra will compete at the Golden Spike meet in Ostrava on June 24, before hosting the inaugural Neeraj Chopra Classic in Bengaluru on July 5.