A week after finally breaching the 90m with a new personal best and national record throw of 90.23m, Neeraj Chopra is back in action at the Janusz Kusocinski Memorial in Chorzow, Poland on Friday evening.
Here's everything you need to know about Neeraj's second javelin throw competition of 2025.
Key Details
Start Time:
9:45pm IST
Venue:
Silesian Stadium, Chorzow, Poland
Neeraj Chopra live: updates, scores, commentary, news from JK memorial, Poland
The Big Picture:
This wasn't supposed to be a weekend out in Poland for Neeraj. It was originally the time for one of his dreams to come true - hosting an A-list World Athletics event in India. However, the Neeraj Chopra Classic - originally scheduled for Saturday in Bengaluru - has now been postponed indefinitely due to conflict at the border. For Neeraj, the season has to go on, and it takes him to his next stop in Poland.
He will once again be greeted by the familiar faces of Julian Weber and Anderson Peters. Weber, too, hit 90m for the first time in his life last week in Doha. His throw of 91.06m eclipsed Neeraj by 73cm and set the tone for a potentially top-class javelin season, which will peak later this year, at the World Championships in Tokyo.
Apart from Peters and Weber, the field in Chorzow will have Moldova's Andrian Mardare, Ukraine's Artur Felfner, and three Polish throwers in Marcin Krukowski, Cyprian Mrzyglod, and Roch Krukowski. Apart from Krukowski, whose personal best of 89.55m came in 2021, the others have personal bests on the lower end of the spectrum.
Neeraj Chopra returns to action tomorrow �� ��
Fresh from breaching the 90m mark at the Doha Diamond League last week, he has his sights set on the BIG prize �� pic.twitter.com/ronFlMpKKI
- ESPN India (@ESPNIndia) May 22, 2025
This event is likely to be a contest between Neeraj, Weber and Peters. For Neeraj, the start to his season will give him confidence. However, with a number of events scheduled in what is a long season until the Worlds in September, he will want to keep his consistency going. The goal will also to be improve on his personal best and add a few meters to the 90m he's thrown before he goes to Tokyo - the site of his greatest achievement to date.
The Indian hasn't finished outside the top two in his last 21 competitions - only three javelin throwers in history can boast of such a record. One of them is Neeraj's coach Jan Zelezny, who went through a series of 34 competitions where he didn't finish outside the top two, leading the pack as he does on pretty much every metric in this sport.
Will Chorzow see high throws similar to Doha?
The Silesian Stadium saw the second highest javelin throw of all time in September 2020, when Johannes Vetter threw a mighty 97.76m. Then eight months later, Vetter registered a 96.29m throw at the same venue. In fact, Vetter also has four other 90m throws and three others in excess of 89m at this venue. It was clearly one of his favourite venues.
Of course, conditions on the day will dictate distances. The Silesian Stadium is a slightly more enclosed venue than the Suheim bin Hamad Stadium in Doha, so the effect of the wind remains to be seen. Last week, Neeraj had said that slightly hotter temperatures in Doha made it conducive for big throws. The temperature in Chorzow is expected to be around 13 degrees Celsius when the event begins - a good 15 degrees lower than what it was in Doha last week.
However, Neeraj and Weber are both in excellent physical shape and have form and confidence on their side as well. The conditions are always king in javelin, but the best athletes in the world are made to fight even the toughest of conditions.
Even though Peters couldn't really threaten the high 80s in Doha on what was clearly a good day of throwing, it is important to remember that this is just the start of the season, and a build-up of competitive throwing is only likely to help him further his distances, and add to the number of 90m throws he already has.
Is Neeraj the only Indian competing at this event?
He is. The entry lists in most events largely consist of Polish athletes, who make up the bulk of the field. In fact, in terms of percentages, the men's javelin, with just 3 out of 8 athletes being Polish, has the lowest representation from the home country.
What Neeraj said:
After last week's 90.23m throw in Doha, Neeraj had said that he feels as fit as he has done in the last few years, and that he's finally able to perform at his best level.
Neeraj Chopra remains hungry for more after making history at Doha Diamond League, 2025 �� pic.twitter.com/E4tr9sNbRT
- ESPN India (@ESPNIndia) May 17, 2025
However, the Indian spoke of the 90.23m throw just being the beginning, and that there is plenty to still work on, in terms of his technique, as Zelezny continues to make slight tweaks to enable Neeraj to hit the mid-90s that many think he could be capable of achieving. Zelezny had told Neeraj during the event in Doha that he had two or three more metres left in him during that competition, but he couldn't quite achieve it there.
At Doha, just for that time, Neeraj was happy with finally breaching 90m, but he knows that this could be the season where his own national records fall a few more times.