Olympic gold medal-winning javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra will be competing in Finland’s Paavo Nurmi games, the organisers confirmed on Wednesday (10 April). Ahead of the 2024 Paris Olympics in July, the meet in Turku, Southwest Finland, is likely to be Neeraj’s second competition of the year.
“The goal is to throw the toughest javelin competition of the summer in Turku before the Paris Olympics,” said Arttu Salonen, head of athlete procurement at the Paavo Nurmi Games. He also confirmed that Germany’s Julian Weber and Max Dehning will also be competing in the event.
Neeraj had previously competed at the Paavo Nurmi Games in 2022, where he won the silver medal with a throw of 89.30m – then a National Record (NR), prior to improving it with an 89.94m throw at the Stockholm leg of Diamond League. The gold medal in Finland was won by local icon Oliver Helander, with an 89.83m throw.
The 26-year-old last featured at the Hangzhou Asian Games, in October 2023, where an 88.88m throw won him his second Asian Games gold medal. Earlier in the same year, he had won a gold medal at the World Athletics Championships, becoming the first-ever Indian to do so, whilst also becoming the first Indian to be crowned Diamond League champion.
Neeraj will commence his 2024 campaign with an attempt to reclaim the Diamond League title, as he will compete in the Doha leg on 10 May. This edition’s Diamond League will have men’s javelin throw on its roster across four legs – Doha (10 May), Paris (7 July), Lausanne (22 August) and Zurich (5 September). The final will be held in Brussels between 13-14 September.
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)