Neeraj Chopra kept alive his streak of finishing top-2 in every event since 2021: making it 22 with a second place finish in the Janusz Kusocinski Memorial behind Julian Weber.
The finish, though, is the only positive from an underwhelming night in Chorzow, Poland, where only the eventual winner Julian Weber seemed to hit any semblance of rhythm. The German was the only athlete to cross 85m, doing so thrice, with a best of 86.12m. He, though, looked decidedly unhappy with all his throws: after hitting 90m for the first time last week (and beating Neeraj with an almighty effort) in the Doha Diamond League, he seemed disappointed at falling short of that mark again.
This was mirrored in Neeraj's (and third place finisher Anderson Peter's) body language. Neeraj's best throw of 84.14m came at the end, with him trailing Weber and Peters till that sixth and final throw of the night. Peters, meanwhile, started slow before peaking in round 3 with a throw of 83.24m. Either side of it, he failed to cross 82m.
Neeraj had an unremarkable series overall: foul, 81.28m, foul, foul, 81.80m, 84.14m.
On what looked a bitterly cold evening in Chorzow (Neeraj came out bundled in two jackets and was wearing a big brown one in between throws as he attempted to stay warm), Neeraj and Peters especially struggled to find any kind of momentum with their throwing. Both had been scheduled to compete in the inaugural Neeraj Chopra Classic in Bengaluru on May 24, but the rescheduling of that meant they attended this event in Poland: and neither appeared well prepared for the conditions.
You can relive the action, as it happened, on our live blog below: