Only the 90m throw is left, says Neeraj ahead of Zurich

Javelin champion says Zurich Diamond League is a great opportunity to nail that elusive mark

- Shantanu Srivastava

When a summer highlight is the Olympics or world championships, it is the medal rather than the distance or timing that matters. Most elite athletes who target records usually pick competitions before or after.

Having clinched a historic first World Athletics Championships gold for India at the weekend to add to his Olympic title, Neeraj Chopra can simply focus on turning a third visualisation exercise into reality – throw the javelin to the 90-metre mark at Thursday’s Zurich Diamond League meeting.

Eight of the 12 who lined up for the final at the Budapest Worlds on Sunday will be in the 10-thrower field in Switzerland. Chopra’s personal best is 89.94m, and he threw his season’s best of 88.77m in qualifying at the Hungarian capital.

With the event scheduled at around 8:30 pm local time and night temperatures in the Swiss city likely to be around 19-20 degrees Celsius — it was a warm early 30s in Budapest— the chill factor may test the field.

Czech Republic’s Jakub Vadlejch – he was third in Budapest – with a personal best of 90.88m and Grenada’s former world champion Anderson Peters (PB 93.07m) are the only two in the field to have ever gone farther than Chopra. Peters has been way below his best with 85.88m his season’s best. He didn’t make the final in Budapest.