Neeraj Chopra seals gold at Golden Spike meet; Peters finishes third

2-TIME OLYMPIC MEDALLIST PRODUCED A BEST EFFORT OF 85.29M TO WIN AHEAD OF SOUTH AFRICA'S DOUW SMIT

- Shantanu Srivastava

NEW DELHI: Four days after winning the Paris Diamond League with a throw of 88.16m, reigning world champion Neeraj Chopra won the Ostrava Golden Spike Meet -- a World Athletics Continental Tour (Gold level) meeting -- on his maiden appearance on Tuesday. Chopra, a two-time Olympic medallist, produced a best effort of 85.29m to win the event ahead of South Africa's Douw Smit, who threw a personal best of 84.12m, and Grenada's Anderson Peters whose best effort of the night was a below-par 83.63m.

The reigning world champion opened the competition with a foul but recorded 83.45m on his next attempt to jump to third spot behind Smit and Peters' first throw of 83.63m. Chopra then ramped it up with a 85.29m effort to jump into the lead, an advantage he didn't cede for the remainder of the competition.

Coached by local legend Jan Zelezny, who watched the proceedings quietly from the sidelines as he was also the tournament director for the event, Chopra didn't appear to exert himself but seemed unimpressed with most of his throws.