Doha Diamond League 2024 Highlights: Neeraj Chopra finishes second with season best 88.36m throw; Kishore Jena manages ninth-place finish on debut

Hello and welcome to Khel Now’s live blog for the Doha Diamond League 2024 where Olympic and world champion Neeraj Chopra is set to be in action. Please wait for the blog to load.

Olympic and world champion Neeraj Chopra is set to kick off his 2024 season at the Doha Diamond League 2024 meet on May 10 at the Qatar Sports Club. The event will feature many of the world’s top javelin throwers as they begin the long road to the Paris Olympics.

Joining Chopra in the men’s javelin competition will be fellow Indian Kishore Jena, who won the silver medal at last year’s Asian Games behind Chopra. Both athletes have already secured quota places for Paris 2024 based on their performances in 2023.

The Diamond League is the top annual circuit of track and field meets organized by World Athletics. Points are awarded at each meet based on performance, with the top athletes qualifying for the final event in Brussels in September.

Chopra is the only Indian ever to win the Diamond League trophy, having claimed the javelin title in 2022. However, he was beaten out last year by Czech thrower Jakub Vadlejch, who will also be competing in Doha.

Other top competitors in the field include Grenadian former world champion Anderson Peters, Finnish world championships finalist Oliver Helander, Japanese Asian Championships winner Roderick Genki Dean, and Kenyan former world champion Julius Yego.

The 90m barrier for Chopra is squarely in his sights after posting a personal best of 89.94m last year in Stockholm. The 25-year-old enters the meet as the defending Doha champion after throwing 88.67m to win in 2023.

With three Indians finishing in the top six at last year’s World Championships, the Indian javelin contingent will look to build on that momentum leading into Paris. A strong early season showing in Doha would boost Chopra’s title defense hopes.

The first head-to-head meeting between Chopra and rising German star Max Dehning is expected to come next month in Finland.

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Neeraj Chopra will contest with 2019 world champion Anderson Peters and Tokyo 2020 silver medalist Jakub Vadlejch in the men’s Javelin throw.

Intense competitions will set the Olympic season’s tone in the Doha Diamond League 2024. In the women’s 800m event, current outdoor world champion Mary Moraa will compete against Jemma Reekie, the reigning indoor world silver medalist. Olympic silver medalist Timothy Cheruiyot and world bronze medalist Narve Gilje Nordås will be in action in the men’s 1500m against Biniam Mehary of Ethiopia and Reynold Cheruiyot of Kenya.

Soufiane El Bakkali will aim to continue his dominance in the men’s 3000m steeplechase in Doha while Steven Gardiner will seek a positive start in the men’s 400m after injury setbacks. The reigning world outdoor, world indoor and European champion will make his Doha debut to establish himself as the top contender for the men’s long jump gold in Paris.

Katie Moon and Nina Kennedy, the co-world champions, will reignite their pole vault rivalry in Doha.

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