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Former Olympic and World Championship gold medalist javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra will be competing at the Lausanne Diamond League on August 21, confirmed the organisers on Monday.
The meet, which is also known as the 'Athletissima', will be the Indian javelin legend's fourth appearance in Lausanne. Neeraj would head into the event with a Commonwealth Games silver, with a best throw of 85.83 m, still eyeing a return to his top form, as per Olympics.com. The 28-year-old Indian athlete secured a win at the event in 2022, with a massive throw of 89.08 m and followed it with a successful title defence in the next edition with a throw of 87.66. In the 2024 edition of the Lausanne Diamond League, he finished runners-up despite an incredible 89.49 m throw. The 2026 edition of the competition could feature one of the strongest fields in the coming years, with newly-crowned CWG champion (with best throw of 89.75 m) and current season's world leader Rumesh Pathirage of Sri Lanka leading the field. Among the other stars would be the Olympic champion Arshad Nadeem from Pakistan, bringing in the 'India versus Pakistan' flavour to the event, while Two-time world champion Anderson Peters, Germany's Thomas Rohler and Keshorn Walcott of Trinidad and Tobago will be seen lighting up the track as well. The Lausanne Diamond League will be Neeraj's third competition of the calendar year, after a fourth-place finish in the Doha Diamond League in June and a CWG silver. This season marks Neeraj's return to action after a lengthy injury lay-off, taking some time off after the Tokyo edition of the World Athletics Championships, where he finished in eighth spot. His season best throw came during the CWG in Glasgow. Lausanne has been a happy hunting ground for Neeraj and could help him end the title drought, having not topped the podium since the Neeraj Chopra Classic at home in July 2025. Since then, his best results have been a runner-up spot in the Diamond League season final 2025 and the CWG 2026 silver. Lausanne Diamond League 2026 javelin throw entry list-Anderson Peters (Grenada)-Arshad Nadeem (Pakistan)-Curtis Thompson (USA)-Jakub Vadlejch (Czechia)-Julian Weber (Germany)-Keshorn Walcott (Trinidad and Tobago)-Neeraj Chopra (India)-Rumesh Pathirage (Sri Lanka)-Simon Wieland (Switzerland)-Thomas Rohler (Germany). (ANI)
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