Chopra Clinches Paris Diamond League, to Focus on Strong Core

The reigning world champion won in the French capital with an effort of 88.16m, pushing German rival Weber to second

- Shantanu Srivastava

NEW DELHI: Neeraj Chopra, the golden boy of Indian athletics, lived up to his reputation once again, winning the Paris leg of the Diamond League late on Friday with his familiar 'one and done' routine in a field where five of the eight competitors had thrown 90m or more.

Chopra's first throw of the night, 88.16m, was enough to hand him his second win of the season as he finished ahead of Germany's Julian Weber, who could only throw a best of 87.88m. Weber had beaten Chopra twice in a space of one week in May, first pipping him at the Doha Diamond League where both crossed the 90m mark for the first time. Weber also beat him at the Janusz Kusocinski Memorial in Poland.

In Paris, Brazil's Luiz Mauricio da Silva, with a throw of 86.62m, finished third.

Chopra's win was his fifth at a Diamond League meet and follows his success in Lausanne (2022, 2023), Doha (2023) and Zurich (2022). The reigning world champion, however, could register only two more legal throws on the night, his second throw being a decent 85.10m effort. He fouled his next three attempts before closing out with a modest 82.69m.