Neeraj Chopra wins Paris Diamond League 2025: Indian wins Paris javelin throw event after leading from first throw of night

Neeraj Chopra: Happy with the throw, it was a good start, but I was hoping for a really good throw today. My runup was really fast today & I can't control my speed. But I'm happy with the result and with first position. Need some more control when I throw.

OFFICIAL: Final results of the night as Neeraj and Weber swap places from Doha. Which also means they are level on 15 points for the season's standings.

And Neeraj Chopra, back to winning ways! His first DL meet win of the season after finishing 2nd in Doha. On the night, his first throw of 88.16 is good enough on the night to pip Julian Weber, who had a more consistent series with 6 valid throws (Neeraj 3 valid throws) but all that matters is the win.

Weber doesn't improve his mark of the night with his final attempt, it's 81.08. Neeraj Chopra pips Weber tonight... but we still Da Silva to throw. 

It is a sub-85 from Neeraj with the last throw of the night for him. It leaves the door open for Weber again. 

Surely not another late steal? We already saw Allman pull off a stunning last-throw win in women's discus. 

The final throws coming up. 

Neeraj will go first.

The top three have been confirmed and it is Chopra ahead of Weber ahead of Da Silva. As it happens in DL meets, the order will be Chopra, Weber, Da Silva for the 6th attempt. Will Weber pull off another heist?

We have been speculating behind the scenes as to why Neeraj has had three straight foul throws, because that is all we can do without any visuals. 

It's another X in front of Neeraj Chopra's name, not something you typically see from the Indian star. But all you need is the best throw of the night and he continues to hold that spot as Weber's 5th throw is 84.50.

Four attempts done, there is no change to the top three with Peters still outside the bracket. Neeraj, Weber and Da Silva. One more throw for the rest of the field to try and sneak into the top three otherwise we will have these three men competing for the final sixth throw.

Julius Yego goes past 80 for the night, with a 80.26m throw for his fourth atempt. 

Neeraj Chopra's fourth throw is also invalid as we enter the 2nd half of the javelin final. Weber with 83.13, which means Neeraj with stay in the lead for a while longer. 

In the men's 1500m, Azzedine Habz ran an incredible race fending off challenge from Kenyan Phanuel Koech to clock 3:27.49 breaking 24 year old meet record of 3:28.38. Buyoed by the home support, Habz clocked World lead (Jakob Ingebrigsten with 3:29.63) and national record, all in one go.

Habz stayed in the lead pack for the 1000m but surged past Zan Rudolf of Slovenia and maintained his lead till the end despite Koech's resurgence in the last 300m, who finished second with 3:27.72, a new U20 World Record.

Indeed, a record shattering 1500m race.

Pritish Raj

Oh wow. There's a big throw alright! Brazil's Mauricio Luiz da Silva with a whopping 86.62m with his third attempt to go up to third place and it is a new Area Record for South America! Beats his own mark of 86.34 that he set last month. 

Big effort from the Brazilian. And it means we have a new top 3 after three attempts and the order of throwing will reset.

It will never cease to amaze that Field events, that need considerable more skill than running fast on Track, and have a more duelling rhythm and drama to their competition, are never given standalone status in Athletics broadcasts. It obviously hits you much more because as an Indian, the partisan interest tends to be on javelin. But why has Athletics never considered javelin, shot put, discus and hammer worthy of a dedicated "show"? How do they always happen on a 'by the way' basis, a blur occuring somewhere in the middle, while all the high tech cameras are trained on track stars? Not grudging them the attention, but will Japan do things different at World Championships when Haruka Kitaguchi stakes claim on gold? 

There's so much in javelin - just the trajectory against ink blue nights is beautiful to watch. And the rivalries and parabolic paths and headwinds and follow-throughs. 

No Indian sports channel bidding for Diamond League rights, and perennially scattered coverage of Neeraj Chopra majors, remains the biggest tragedy of Indian Olympic sport. 

Shivani Naik

Meanwhile, Marileidy Paulino - the Paris Olympics champion from Dominican Republic - has stunned the great Salwa Eid Nasser by 0.04 seconds to win the 400m race. Paulino broke the Meet Record, which she set a couple of years ago, with a time of 48.81 seconds. Incredible race, and Paulino remains the one to beat come the worlds.

Mihir Vasavda

Julian Weber's third throw is 82.03m and that keeps him in 2nd place. Given the starts these two had, got the feeling it might a night for bigger throws but seems to not be the case. 

It is an invalid attempt from Neeraj with his third throw of the night. No visuals but it is more than likely an intentional foul. 

A slight improvement for Anderson Peters as he goes up to 80.29. 

All athletes are done with two attempts. Still no one in the vicinity of Neeraj and Weber. It would seem we have a two-way battle again for the title tonight.

Keshorn Walcott goes better with his 2nd throw and keeps the third spot ahead of Anderson Peters, that could be an interesting battle to watch out for in the bid to finish top three. Reminder, only the top three after five attempts, get to throw a sixth time.

First attempts done and we are into the 2nd attempts now and Neeraj crosses 85 but doesn't improve his previous throw. Peters just crosses 80. What will Weber do? 86.20 from the Big German and we will likely keep the status quo of the top two going into the third round. Meanwhile, the stream has stopped working so stay with us for the score updates.

Neeraj Chopra and Julian Weber far ahead of the pack at the moment as the first attempts come to a close.

You could see the crowd getting 'distracted' as Neeraj let the javelin fly. All the focus was on men's 110m hurdles; just when the sprinters got on their marks, Neeraj threw the javelin in the background in a near-silent arena. There was a tiny applause after '88.16' flashed on the screen, but it was immediately cut short after the emcee shushed them so that the hurdles could get underway. Anyway, Neeraj leads at the moment as Weber throws 87.88.

Mihir Vasavda

And it is a very impressive 88.16m from Neeraj for his first throw. Solid start and perhaps an indication of decent throwing conditions. 

Earlier Anderson Peters started with 77.89, not a great mark. And Julian Weber goes third, and starts with a 87.88 -- here we go then, once more it is Weber vs Chopra

Over to javelin. The meet record of the Paris Diamond League is held by Neeraj's coach Jan Zelezny -- his throw of 91.40m in July 1993 still stands. The world lead this year is 91.06 by Julian Weber, and if Doha was anything to go by, Zelezny's record at Paris DL could be under threat tonight.

Mihir Vasavda

Here's a look at the season's top 10 throwers so far, with Weber and Neeraj leading the way with their 90m+ throws. Interestingly, Anderson Peters doesn't feature here but we know what he is capable of. Is tonight the night he makes a big splash? He will be the first to throw, followed by Neeraj.

While we wait for Neeraj, some incredible running in the 3000m steeplechase by the Kenyan and Ugandan runners. At the end of the race that the duo dominated from the start -- breaking away from the rest after a couple of laps -- it was Faith Cherotich who clocks the fifth fastest time ever in women's 3,000m steeplechase, clocking 8:53.37. It's also the world-leading timing this year. A statement run by the 2023 World Championship bronze medallist, who is the favorite to win her maiden title at this year's worlds.

How Chopra crossed 90m, by Mihir Vasavda

Ever the seeker, Neeraj Chopra was already looking expectantly towards the future as everyone around him was revelling in the present. Not for him the outpouring of emotions, a big sigh or any over-the-top celebrations after doing what no other Indian, and only 24 men globally before him, had done: make the javelin travel more than 90m. 90.23, to be exact. He might have broken the National Record — and the internet — but when, after Friday night’s Diamond League duel, he was enthusiastically asked where this would feature in his long list of achievements, Chopra looked bemused. ‘Achievement?’ he mumbled. There was relief that the 90m questions — an irritant he could do without — would now stop. Beyond that, he was reluctant to read more into it. To him, breaching the hallowed mark was not an end. It was only the start. “Raasta mil gaya hai nabbe metre ka (I have unlocked the path to 90m),” he told RevSportz.

For three years, Chopra had been desperately trying to add 6cm to his earlier personal best of 89.94m, which he threw in Stockholm back in June 2022. On Friday, when he bettered his PB by 29cm, he had a lot going for him. Crucially, the first time in more than a year, he was injury-free, which allowed Chopra to express himself without having to ‘fear’ about his groin. There were some subtle technical tweaks, too. When he took over as Chopra's coach in February, Czech legend Jan Zelezny shared his observation that, at times, Chopra’s throws were a little low. He wanted the javelin to fly higher.

A wry smile, a shake of the head, and a side embrace with his fellow competitors. There wouldn’t be a more muted, low-key celebration to any sporting accomplishment than this, let alone when an athlete joins an exclusive club that only a couple of dozen were a part of before Friday night. Indeed, Neeraj Chopra roared and raised his arms in the trademark fashion as he launched the javelin into Doha’s night sky. But that he always does. The difference this time — on this balmy evening with the temperature in the low 30s and very little wind — was that the spear flew and kept flying. By the time it returned to earth, crashing into the other end of the arena, the javelin had travelled the farthest Neeraj — or any other Indian, for that matter — had ever thrown — 90.23m. Three years after coming within 6cm of the 90m mark, Neeraj finally breached the barrier at the Doha leg of the Diamond League on Friday night. The landmark throw came on his third attempt, thus becoming only the 25th javelin thrower to cross the 90m-mark. When the scores flashed on the big screen and were announced in the stadium, Neeraj looked more relieved than happy. That Neeraj would finish in the top two of the Doha leg of the Diamond League was taken for granted. He’s done that in every competition since the Tokyo Olympics.

The only thing that mattered was if, in the new season, he’d offer something new — in other words, a throw that would cross 90m. With the proverbial monkey now off his back, at least he wouldn’t constantly be bombarded with that one question which has haunted him wherever he has gone, sometimes even threatening to overshadow everything else he’d achieved — an Olympic gold?

‘That’s fine, but what about 90m?’ The World Championship title? ‘Alright, but when will you throw 90?’ An Olympic silver? ‘But hey, Arshad Nadeem romped to a gold with a daddy 90!’ All those days, Neeraj painstakingly explained that it was winning that mattered and not the distance. On a night when the distance he coveted became the central focus — ironically, after no one bugged him with the 90m question in the lead-up — Neeraj didn’t win. And the irony wasn’t lost on him, and Neeraj called the evening ‘bittersweet’.

Javelin beyond Neeraj

While Neeraj Chopra remains the undisputed leader in the Indian Javelin scenario, there is always a tussle for the number two spot.

In the past two years, Kishore Kumar Jena emerged as the worthy number two, pushing Neeraj at the Asian Games finals for a double podium finish and also improving massively from 78.05m to 87.54m at his peak.

However, an injury and a string of poor results on comeback meant there was a chance for another Javelin thrower to become the number two.

25-year-old Sachin Yadav rose rapidly after breaking on the scene last year with a personal best of 82.49m. With a throwing action similar to current Olympic champion Arshad Nadeem, Sachin has bettered his personal best twice this year with throws of 84.39m and 85.16m.

The 85.16m throw came in the final at Asian Championships where the thrower from Uttar Pradesh won silver medal finishing behind Arshad and pushing him throughout the competition.

Apart from Jena and Sachin, the likes of Yashvir Singh, Sahil Silwal, Vikrant Malik and Rohit Yadav are also constantly touching 80m making it a tough battlefield at the National level.

Pritish Raj

The world record in javelin seems to stand for a while longer at least with Jan Zelezny but Neeraj (and Weber) could have their eyes on the Paris DL meeting record of 91.40m. Also held by Zelezny.

“It is a little bit bittersweet result,” Neeraj had said in Doha. “I am very happy for the 90m, but this second place – it actually happened to me also when I competed in Turku and in Stockholm (in 2022). I threw 89.94 and I was second (at Stockholm DL in 2022, his previous best). Here also I broke the national record and got second. But I am very happy also for Weber, we both broke 90m for the first time, we’ve been trying this for so many years, so finally, we managed to get it.”

Current World No 1 Anderson Peters (Season Best 85.64), Kenya’s Julius Yego (SB 78.74), Trinidad and Tobago’s Keshorn Walcott (SB: 84.65) and Brazilian Mauricio Luiz Da Silva (SB: 86.34) are also in the fray.

In Doha, Neeraj’s season got off to a strong start. His first throw was a solid 88.44m and a sign that he was in the zone early, and then with his third throw, he went past the mark that he had been dreaming about, a new Personal Best of 90.23m. That, however, wasn’t enough to win the event on the night as Weber kept his end-of-season promise to Neeraj and threw 91.06m for what is the world-leading mark to beat this year.

For the first three attempts, Neeraj will go 2nd behind Anderson Peters. The order will then reverse based on the best throws among the first three attempts.

Mihir Vasavda's report from Paris last year: INDIA’S GREATEST living Olympian is madly in love with what he does. And it is giving him nothing but grief. You feel it in his words and the long pauses. You hear the pain in his voice and can see a lump in the throat. “Medal alag cheez hai (Medal is one thing),” says Neeraj Chopra, the javelin throw silver medallist. “But I feel there is a better throw left in me. Until I get that, shanti nahi mil paegi (I won’t be at peace).” It isn’t regret, Chopra is quick to emphasise. When he started, he didn’t even dream of being at the Olympics. He didn’t have an athlete’s physique or the background. “Pata nahi kaise aa gaye yahan tak (I don’t know how I reached this far),” he smiles. “Journey sahi rahi hai. Whatever medals were there to win, I have won them by God’s grace.”

In his Instagram post at the end of the 2024 season, Neeraj Chopra – reflecting on a year that wasn’t up to his high standards but still saw him keep his place on the Olympic podium and continue his streak of top-two finishes – wrote about his learnings and setbacks. “While I couldn’t meet my own expectations, I feel this was a season in which I learned a lot. I am now determined to return, fully fit and ready to go.” One of the replies to that post came from Julian Weber, who had finished a disappointing 6th at Paris 2024. The German wrote: “Such a great season bro, next year 90m will be easy for us.” He followed that with a muscle flex emoji.

And flex their muscles they did in Doha earlier this year, as both of them entered the coveted 90m club in the curtain-raiser for 2025. It set the tone beautifully for what is developing into the rivalry to watch this season in track and field, and they will be at it again on Friday night at Charléty Stadium in Paris in the second Diamond League meet for men’s javelin.

An upturn incoming?

Since the new records have been maintained since the late 1980s, a decade wise breakdown indicates that we might be entering an golden era. While seven men broke the 90m club in the 1990s, it went down to six in the 2000s and 2010s. But halfway into the 2020s, we already have seven new members in the club. The 1990s also witnessed 40 different events where 90m was broken, thanks mainly to Zelezny  -- and that number is up to 21 in 2020s. If Chopra, like he always has been, hits a new patch of consistent 90m+ throws in the company of Zelezny, we are in for some highly enthrallingly competitive events.

"I’ve been so close for so long, and deep down, I always knew I had a 90-meter throw in me," he told The Indian Express in an email interview. "The vibe was incredible in Doha, and I was in a really good headspace. I didn’t let Neeraj’s early throw shake me. On the contrary, it added to the excitement. I stayed focused, kept building with each throw, and knew that if I caught one just right, something big could happen. It’s a really exciting time for the sport. When guys like Walcott, Peters, and Chopra are encouraging you before a final throw, that says something. I think we’re definitely going to see more 90-meter throws, more head-to-head battles."

German domination

The other name apart from Zelezny that is unmissable in this list is Germany's Johannes Vetter who, until recently, was throwing beyond 90m for fun and even threatened the world record, going as close as 97.76m. Indeed, it is the Germans who dominate this mini group, with 7 members over the years, the most recent being Weber on Friday. The second best is Finland  – which is regarded the spiritual home of javelin – followed by two from Czech in Zelezny and Chopra's peer Vadlejch. A total of 16 countries feature in this club and thanks to Chopra, India is now one of them.

The Doha factor

Among the 26 athletes who have now breached the 90m barrier, Doha is a popular destination. The Suhaim bin Hamad Stadium in the Qatari capital is where five members of this club – Thomas Röhler, Anderson Peters, Jakub Vadlejch, and now Chopra and Weber – have come up with their best throws. Seven different athletes have thrown 90m+ at the venue with Rohler achieving it twice. Kuortane in Finland has also seen 8 90m+ throws achieved by 5 different athletes.

Jan, in a league of his own

The 90m mark in men's javelin (800g)  has been breached a total of 129 times in history by 26 different athletes, considering of course the one best throw in any given event. One man alone is responsible for 34 of those: Czechia legend Jan Zelezny, the world record holder and, more relevantly, Chopra's coach. "Growing up, I admired Jan's technique and precision and spent a lot of time watching (YouTube) videos of him," Chopra had told World Athletics last year. One of those videos would surely have been the massive 98.48m that is currently the world record, set in May 1996 in Jena, Germany. It has stood the test of time.

In Doha, Neeraj's season got off to a strong start. His first throw was a solid 88.44m and a sign that he was in the zone early, and then with his third throw, he went past the mark that he had been dreaming about, a new Personal Best of 90.23m. That, however, wasn't enough to win the event on the night as Weber kept his end-of-season promise to Neeraj and threw 91.06m for what is the world-leading mark to beat this year. At the Janusz Kusocinski Memorial a week later, in chilly conditions not ideal for throwing, Neeraj struggled for most of the event but Weber was operating in a zone that no one else in the field was. While the Indian star did manage to come up with 84.14m with his last throw (and extended his run of finishing in the top two at 22 events since June 2021), Weber threw thrice beyond 85m while no one else managed even once.

And welcome to our continued live coverage of the Diamond League circuit and our attention tonight is once more on Neeraj Chopra in men's javelin throw. The Tokyo Olympic champion is back in Paris, the city where he won silver at the Olympics last year – and actually cut a disappointed figure. It is not the same venue, but it is another high quality field and we will witness another chapter in the Neeraj Chopra vs Julian Weber rivalry that has been off to an interesting start in 2025 with both athletes breaching the 90m mark for the first time in their careers in the Doha leg of the Diamond League last month. 

Stay tuned for the live updates. Men's javelin will start in about a couple of hours, start time is 1.12 am IST.