Athletics: Neeraj Chopra, Sreeshankar Murali to return to action at Lausanne Diamond League

Tokyo Olympics gold medallist Neeraj Chopra will return to action at the Lausanne Diamond League 2023 in Switzerland on June 30. Long jumper Sreeshankar Murali will also be competing at the event.

The men’s javelin ace and defending Diamond League champion began his campaign in May with his fourth-best throw at the Doha Diamond League of 88.67 metres. However, he had to withdraw from the FBK Games in the Netherlands on June 4 and the Paavo Nurmi Games in Finland on June 13 due to a muscle strain he experienced during training.

Here’s a look at the start list for men’s javelin:

Chopra won the Lausanne Diamond League last year with a solid 89.08m throw. The 89.94m mark set by Chopra at the Stockholm Diamond League in 2022 remains his personal best. With eight points earned after the victory in Doha, he now holds the lead in the men’s javelin throw points standings in Diamond League 2023.

Neeraj Chopra’s all-time Personal Top 10 throws

Joining Chopra in action at Lausanne will be long-jumper Sreeshankar who finished an impressive third in the men’s long jump event at the Paris Meet. Earlier this week, the 24-year-old also met the Asian Games long jump qualification mark at the 62nd National Inter State Senior Athletics Championship in Bhubaneswar.

Sreeshankar crossed the qualification mark for the Budapest World Athletics Championship in August and the Hangzhou Asian Games in September-October with an 8.41m jump in the first preliminary round. Additionally, he beat his own meet record of 8.23m.

Here’s a look at the start list for men’s long jump :

However, Tamil Nadu’s Jeswin Aldrin, another leading jumper this season who recorded a best jump of 7.83m in qualification in Bhubaneswar, will not be competing even though his name features in the start list for the Lausanne Diamond League.