Neeraj to face Pathirage at Lausanne
Two-time Olympic medallist Neeraj Chopra will compete in the Lausanne Diamond League on August 21 against a star-studded men’s javelin field featuring recently-crowned Commonwealth Games champion and world leader Rumesh Pathirage of Sri Lanka among others.
The event will, in fact, have five participants from the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow that ended on Sunday. Chopra, who won silver in Glasgow with a season-best throw of 85.83m in his second meet after an injury layoff, will face Olympic champion Arshad Nadeem of Pakistan, reigning world champion Keshorn Walcott of Trinidad and Tobago, former world champion Anderson Peters of Grenada and former Olympic champion Thomas Rohler of Germany apart from Pathirage. The field will also include Tokyo Olympic silver-medallist Jakub Vadlejch of the Czech Republic, Germany’s Julian Weber, Switzerland’s Simon Wieland and American Curtis Thompson, the world No. 2 this season.
“The five javelin superstars, who have won the last four editions of the Olympic Games and World Championships, will be present at Athletissima on August 21 for a competition of extraordinary quality,” the organisers said.
The Lausanne meet will be Chopra’s third competition since returning from a lower-back injury that sidelined him in September last year. The 28-year-old opened his season with an 85.69m effort to finish fourth at the Doha Diamond League in June before improving to 85.83m to claim silver at the Commonwealth Games.
“Although we always want the National anthem to play, I did my season’s best and the comeback is going okay. There are other competitions as well. I am happy,” Chopra had said after his silver in Glasgow. Chopra had finished runner-up at the Lausanne Diamond League in 2024 with a career fourth-best throw of 89.49m after winning the title in 2022 with an 89.08m effort.
Pathirage heads to Lausanne in red-hot form after winning the Commonwealth Games title with 89.75m. The Sri Lankan has a personal best of 92.62m, achieved at the Golden Gala Pietro Mennea in Roma in June this year, making him the only thrower to breach the 90m mark this season.
