Neeraj Chopra won gold at the Paavo Nurmi Games in Turku, Finland with a throw of 85.97m. A rather comfortable win by the end, Chopra beat two Finns to the prize, Toni Keranen (84.19m, a personal best) and Oliver Helander (83.96m).
Former world champion Anderson Peters finished fourth with 82.58m, while young German sensation Max Dehning had a disappointing day out with a best of 79.84m, a mark good enough only for seventh (out of eight). Touted as the first clash between Chopra and young Dehning, the event turned into an anti climax.
Chopra lead after his first throw, only to be overtaken by Helander on the second, In the third, though, Chopra let out a yell and held his hands aloft: the sign that he was happy with his throw. And when he's happy that usually means... the lead is his, and so it turned out to be. Although Keranen pushed his personal limits to get past his more famous compatriot, it was still not anywhere near enough to trouble the Indian.
Chopra would have a disappointing next set of throws, but he will be pleased with the result. A gold is what he always aims for at any tournament and it's a gold that he's gotten, even if the numbers weren't upto his usual standard. Considering he's retuning from a minor adductor muscle strain, this is still a good sign, though.
Here's how Chopra's six throws went:
83.62m
83.45m
85.97m (the best)
82.21m
FOUL
82.97m
And here's how the final standings looked;
Chopra: 85.97m
Keranen: 84.19m (a personal best)
Helander: 83.96m
Peters: 82.58m
Mardare: 82.19m
Walcott: 81.93m
Dehning: 79.84m
Etelatalo: 77.69m
In other results at the Games, Olympic champion Lamont Marcell Jacobs showed he's back with a solid win in the 100m (9.93s) while Omar McLeod, Rio champion, had a confidence boosting win in the 110m hurdles (13.38s).
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