Paris Olympics 2024 gold medallist Arshad Nadeem was missing from line-up at Lausanne Diamond League 2024, where Neeraj Chopra finished 2nd on Thursday night.
Paris Olympics 2024 men’s javelin champion Arshad Nadeem was a prominent athlete missing from the line-up in the recently concluded Lausanne Diamond League 2024. Nadeem had set a new Olympic record with his throw of 92.97m in the men’s javelin final earlier this month in the Olympics men’s javelin to bring home the gold medal.
India’s Neeraj Chopra, the defending men’s javelin champion from Tokyo, could only finish in 2nd spot behind Arshad Nadeem with a throw of 89.45m. Fans were hoping that men’s javelin event in Diamond League would witness a replay of this duel but were left disappointed.
Arshad Nadeem was missing from the entry list for the Lausanne Diamond League 2024. The reason for the javelin star to skip the Diamond League event was that he decided to return to Pakistan following his heroics in the Paris Olympics 2024, unlike Neeraj Chopra who chose to stay back in Europe after winning the silver medal in Paris.
Since returning home with Pakistan’s first gold in the Olympics since 1984, Nadeem has been showered with cash prizes worth around 280 million, cars and other gifts. Nadeem had finished in fourth place in the Paris Diamond League on July 7 with a throw of 84.21m. That was his only Diamond League meeting and the lone event apart from the Olympics this season.
Meanwhile, Neeraj registered his season-best throw in the Lausanne Diamond League in Switzerland on Friday where he managed a distance of 89.49 metres. Speaking after his event, he said as quoted by Olympics website, “The feeling was not great at first, but I am happy with my throw, especially the second-best throw on my last attempt,” Neeraj said.
“It was a tough start, but the comeback was really nice and I enjoyed the fighting spirit I showed. Even though my early throws were around 80-83 meters, I pushed hard in the last two attempts finishing strong. Competing at this high level, it is important to stay mentally tough and fight through,” he added.
Anderson Peters of Grenada set a new meet record with a monster throw of 90.61m to take the first place while Julian Weber of Germany settled for third with 87.08m. Neeraj, now a two-time Olympic medallist, began the evening on a modest note and failed to breach the 85m mark on any of his first four attempts. Staying fourth on the leaderboard for most of the event, he climbed to third place with an 85.58m throw on his penultimate attempt to earn an extra throw.
Competing against Peters and Weber in the final round, Neeraj secured the second-best throw of his career. The 89.94m throw achieved at the Stockholm Diamond League in 2022 continues to be Neeraj’s personal best and is also the national record in India.