India’s golden boy Neeraj Chopra back on top of Javelin World Rankings, knocks off Anderson Peters for coveted spot

Two-time Olympic medallist Neeraj Chopra has once again achieved the top ranking in the world for javelin throw, according to the latest list released by World Athletics this week.

Neeraj Chopra becomes no.1 again

Previously, Neeraj had been overtaken by Anderson Peters for the No. 1 position on September 17 of the previous year, after the Grenadian athlete emerged victorious at the Diamond League Final held in Brussels. Currently, Neeraj Chopra holds the leading position with 1445 points, closely followed by Anderson Peters with 1431 points. The third spot is secured by German athlete Anderson Peters with 1407 points, while Pakistan’s Arshad Nadeem ranks fourth with 1370 points.

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Neeraj is set to defend his World Championships title in Tokyo in September. He began his season with an invitational meet in Potchefstroom, where he won a gold medal with a throw of 84.52 meters. Subsequently, at the Diamond League opener in Doha, he achieved a significant milestone by crossing the 90-meter mark for the first time in his career with a throw of 90.23 meters. Despite this achievement, he had to settle for second place, finishing behind Weber. Later, at the Janusz Kusocinski Memorial in Chorzow, he secured another second-place finish with a throw of 84.14 meters.

He notched a victory over Weber at the Paris Diamond League with an opening throw of 88.16 meters. Following this, he secured his third win of the season at the Ostrava Golden Spike event with another throw of 88.16 metres. Neeraj's next scheduled competition is the inaugural Neeraj Chopra Classic, which is set to be held in Bengaluru on July 5.

After finally breaching the 90-metr mark, he shared his feelings stating that many had doubted if he would ever reach this milestone, as he had been attempting it since 2018, often reaching the 88-89 meter range. He expressed that this achievement not only fulfilled his personal goal but also lifted the expectations of the Indian audience. He is currently training under the guidance of javelin legend Jan Železný, who was appointed as the chief coach last year. Neeraj revealed that their collaboration began in February of this year.