Bengaluru: Double Olympic medallist Neeraj Chopra, the poster boy of Indian athletics, continued with his superb form as he won the inaugural edition of Neeraj Chopra Classic 2025, a World Athletics gold-level event, with a best throw of 86.18m at Sree Kanteerva Stadium here on Saturday.
Kenya’s Julius Yego finished second after notching up his season-best throw of 84.51m Sri Lanka’s Rumesh Pathirage came third with a best throw of 84.34m.
Chopra, who was welcomed by the 14,593 people with thunderous roars and cheers, began with a foul but took the lead with the 2nd attempt of 82.99m.
The Indian mega star, who won a gold medal in the Tokyo Olympic Games and followed it up with a silver medal in Paris in 2024, then registered the biggest throw of the night with his third throw of 86.16 to thrill the Bengaluru crowd. He followed it up with a foul in the fourth attempt and 84.07 in the fifth before rounding off the event with 82.22m.
“Thank you, Bengaluru, for coming tonight. There was a headwind for us today, so the marks weren’t that big. But this was such a different experience for me, I had to do so many different things apart from competing. We will try to add more events. I am so happy tonight, my family is here too. Was a little nervous, not happy with the result too much, but happy. Thank you so much,” Chopra said afterwards.
Chopra began his season by winning the Potch Invitational Meet in Potchefstroom, South Africa, in April before finishing second at the Doha Diamond League, where he breached the elusive 90m mark with a 90.23m throw to reset the Indian national record.
He then finished second again at the Janusz Kusocinski Memorial in Poland and followed it up with first position at the Paris Diamond League meet last week. He then claimed top spot with an 88.16m throw in the Ostrava Golden Spike 2025 athletics with 85.29.
(IANS)
