Neeraj Chopra wins at Paavo Nurmi Games on return to action

Olympic and World Champion Javelin Thrower Neeraj Chopra marked his return to action with a win at the Paavo Nurmi Games in Turku on Tuesday night.

Returning following an injury scare, Neeraj recorded the best throw of 85.97m to clinch the top spot.

Local boys Toni Keranen and Oliver Helander took the second and third spots with the best throws of 84.19m and 83.96m respectively.

Other big names such as former world champion Anderson Peters, Olympic medalist Keshorn Walcott, and young German sensation Max Dehning had a poor outing as all of them struggled with their rhythm.

Youngest-ever thrower to cross the 90m mark, Max struggled and failed to cross 80m with the best throw of 79.84m while Anderson Peters had the best throw of 82.58m and Walcott had 81.93m.

Neeraj displays consistency

Neeraj Chopra displayed incredible consistency and registered five legal throws with all of them being over 82m.

Coming back from an injury scare to his adductor muscles, Neeraj started with an 83.62m throw and followed it up with an 83.45m throw on his second attempt.

In his third attempt, Neeraj recorded the best throw of the night with a massive 85.97m. However, this is still short of his season best of 88.36m that he recorded at the Doha Diamond League.

This was the third competition for Neeraj after he finished second in the Doha Diamond League and won the Federation Cup with a best throw of 82.27m. He had to pull out of Ostrava Golden Spikes due to the injury scare mentioned above.

What next for Neeraj Chopra?

The Olympic champion will train in Europe till July 28 along with coach Klaus Bartonietz and physio Ishaan Marwaha in preparation for Paris 2024. He will first train in Saarbrucken, Germany till 7th July. Thereafter, the 26-year-old will be at the Gloria Sports Arena in Turkey from July 8.

He is expected to participate in the Diamond League meeting on 7th July in Paris.