Federation Cup: Neeraj Chopra makes triumphant return to national events, bags gold medal; Jena dissapoints

Bhubaneswar (Odisha) [India], May 15 : Olympic gold medalist and World Champion Neeraj Chopra secured a gold medal in the men's javelin throw competition in the ongoing Federation Cup on Wednesday.

Chopra bagged the gold, with the best throw of 82.27 m. DP Manu, a silver medalist in the Asian Athletics Championships, bagged the second spot with the best effort of 82.06 m. Asian Games silver medalist Kishore Jena, however, could not secure a podium position. Uttam Patil, with a throw of 78.39m, took home the bronze.

Neeraj started off in the final with a throw of 82 m. However, DP took the lead with a throw of 82.06 m in his first attempt.

The second attempt of the Olympic gold medalist turned out to be a foul, though he bounced back well with 81.29 m throw in the third attempt. DP Manu still held the lead, though.

Neeraj took the lead in his fourth attempt, throwing at a distance of 82.27 m. Manu could not gain back his lead as he threw 81.47 m on the fourth attempt and fouled on the next two attempts. Neeraj chose not to attempt his last two throws and bagged the top prize.

Jena, however, was not even in contention for the podium spot during all this while, recording a foul and a throw of 75.49 m, then two more fouls and then throws of 73.79 m and 75.25 m respectively, to end an unspectacular night for himself.

Uttam started with a throw of 75.55 m and attained the podium position at number three after the fifth round.

The starting list for the javelin throw final also included, Shivpal Singh, Parmod, Rohit Kumar

Kunwer Ajairaj Singh, Manjinder Singh, Bibin Antony, Vikas Yadav, Vivek Kumar

Neeraj was competing in his second competition of the 2024 outdoor athletics season. He started his season at the Doha Diamond League last week, finishing second with a throw of 88.36m.

This also marks his first appearance at a national-level event since the Tokyo Olympics back in 2021. His previous outing before this in a national event was the 2021 Federation Cup in March. He bagged the gold with a throw of 87.80m back then.

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