Just after winning the prestigious Lausanne Diamond League, ace Olympian Neeraj Chopra reckoned that he was far from his best and was indeed quite nervous on his comeback after a long break of a month.
Neeraj, 25, was forced to skip three top events earlier due to a muscle strain he sustained while training last month however, he made a roaring comeback as he won the Diamond League title with his fifth-round throw of 87.66m.
In the cause, the star javelin thrower beat his closest competitors – Germany’s Julian Weber (87.03m) and Czech Republic’s Jakub Vadlejch (86.13m) narrowly late on Friday.
Notably, it was Chopra’s second Lausanne Diamond League win in couple of years.
“I was feeling a bit nervous coming back from an injury. It was a bit cold here tonight. I am still far from my best, but I feel it is getting better. I am relieved it’s coming together well for me. A win is a win and I will take that happily,” Chopra told organisers after his win.
“I wanted to win so I’m super happy with the results but I also want to go back to training and fix some of the things that I noticed and that are going to make me stronger. Lausanne always treats me well. Last year I won and this year too, so I look forward to coming again next year and win again! The next competition, Budapest, will be a big one for me!” the star Olympian further added.
On Friday, Neeraj began with a foul and then had throws of 83.52m and 85.04m respectively.
Although he had another foul in the fourth round but then he came up with his winning throw of 87.66m in his fifth attempt. His sixth and last throw was of 84.15m.
Earlier, Neeraj had won the season-opening Diamond League meeting in Doha on May 5 with a throw of 88.67m.