Neeraj Chopra eyes glory at Paris Diamond League 2025

New Delhi: Two-time Olympic medallist Neeraj Chopra will be back in Paris again after the 2024 Olympics to compete in the Diamond League, which is scheduled to take place on June 20 at the Stade Sebastien-Charlety.The 2024 Olympic silver medallist marks his return to the Paris event after eight years and will be competing against the best in the business.In addition, the event will be the 27-year-old's second Diamond League appearance in 2025 after Doha.When he competed in the 2017 edition in Paris, Neeraj finished fifth with a throw of 84.67. After countless achievements and a number of records broken, Neeraj will certainly be someone in the star-studded javelin lineup to watch out for.It was expected that Neeraj would have been a part of the Paris event last year, but due to the Olympics in line, he decided to skip the event.It has been a while since Neeraj finished outside the top two Javelin throwers.The last time when he finished outside second place was back in June 2021 during the Kuortane Games in Finland.Since then, in 25 appearances (including qualification rounds), Neeraj has always been in the top two.Neeraj will aim to extend his streak and eye a solid win against his counterparts.The 27-year-old achieved what he aimed for many years, which was breaching the 90m mark.During the Diamond League event in Doha earlier in May this year, Qatar, Neeraj made a monstrous throw of 90.23m, surpassing his previous personal best throw of 89.94m at the Stockholm Diamond League in 2022.Despite breaching the 90m mark, Neeraj finished second behind Germany's Julian Weber, who launched a throw of 91.06m.The Indian javelin thrower began the season on a high when he emerged victorious in the Potch Invitational Meet in Potchefstroom, South Africa, after registering a throw of 84.52m.Post the Diamond League in Doha, he took part in the Janusz Kusocinski Memorial in Chorzów, Poland, on May 23.Despite tricky conditions at the venue, Neeraj managed to finish with a best throw of 84.14m.With the throw, Neeraj finished second to Weber again, who won the contest with a throw of 86.12m.The mega event will be his first appearance in Paris since the 2024 Olympics.In the global multi-sporting event last year, Neeraj finished second behind Pakistan's Arshad Nadeem with a best throw of 89.45m and settled with silver.Arshad's massive throw of 92.97m was enough for him to win the Olympic gold.After the showpiece event in France's capital, Neeraj will be participating in the Golden Spike Athletics meet, which is scheduled to take place on June 24 in the Czech Republic.After the event, he will be a part of the inaugural Neeraj Chopra Classic on July 5 in Bengaluru.The javelin throwers with the most number of points at the end of the Diamond League series this year will make the cut for the Diamond League Final, which will be held in Zurich on August 27-28.Neeraj has a brilliant record in the Diamond League Final with one first-place finish in the 2022 edition and two second-place finishes in 2023 and 2024.