Neeraj Chopra etched his name in the history book during the 2025 Zurich Diamond League final. Although the 27-year-old was far from his best, he still finished second. The Indian star extended a four-year-old streak and broke a 21st century world record.
Photo : AP
Neeraj Chopra etched his name in the history books despite not being able to win the second Diamond League title of his career in Zurich on Thursday (August 28) at the Stadion Letzigrund in Switzerland. The 27-year-old secured a second-place finish behind Julian Webber, who produced a performance for the ages.
Webber crossed the 90m mark twice in his first two throws, with both efforts being his personal best of 91.37m and 91.51m. The Tokyo Olympics gold medalist started with 84.35m before throwing 82m. Neeraj made a foul throw on his third, fourth, and fifth throws.
Going into the sixth throw, Neeraj was third but ended up ensuring a second-place with an 85.01m throw, narrowly going past Trinidad’s Keshorn Walcott’s 84.95 effort
Neeraj Chopra Creates History
With a last-ditch effort on the final throw, ensuring second place, Neeraj maintained his streak of finishing in the top two events. The streak, which started during his historic Gold Medal victory in the 2021 Olympics at Tokyo and now stands at 1483 days and counting.
Neeraj has now gone past Sergey Makarov and is only behind Jan Zelezny in the list of Javelin throwers for the most consecutive top-two finishes. The reigning world champion is now also the first athlete with 26 top-two finishes in a row in the male Javelin throw events in the 21st century.