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Indian javelin throw star Neeraj Chopra acknowledged that his timing was off in the Diamond League Finals in which he finished second, but he is hopeful of hitting his strides at the World Championships (13-21 September) in Tokyo, where he is the defending champion.
The two-time Olympic medallist finished runner-up in the Diamond League Finale for the third time in a row as Julian Weber of Germany lifted his maiden trophy with a throw of 91.57m — his second effort over 90m in the day — in a commanding show here on Thursday.
Chopra was in third place until the fifth round following his opening throw of 84.35m before his final effort of 85.01m took him to the second spot, overtaking 2012 London Olympics gold winner Keshorn Walcott of Trinidad and Tobago who ended third with a throw of 84.95m.
“The timing was not so good today [Thursday], run-up was not so good. There is something I didn’t find today, but I still have three weeks for the World Championships, and I will try my best,” Chopra said after the event on Thursday.
The Tokyo Olympic gold medallist had crossed 90m for the first time earlier this year at the Doha Diamond League, but has on numerous occasions said he needs to improve his technique to hit the mark consistently.
“This was not too bad. But we are getting very close to the World Championships, so I still need to throw a little bit farther. There were a few things that went well, but there were things which did not go that well. I still need to train a little bit. In this sport, we do not know. It [the performance] depends on the day,” Chopra said.
On Thursday, Chopra was not at his best as he had three legal throws out of the six attempts as Weber extended his head-to-head record against him to 3-1 this season. The German had earlier beaten Chopra to second place at the Doha Diamond League in May and ORLEN Janusz Kusocinski Memorial event in Chorzow, Poland, the same month. However, Chopra won the Paris Diamond League in June with Weber finishing second.
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