Neeraj’s consistency will be key in Lausanne

The Lausanne Diamond League meeting on Thursday comes barely a fortnight after the track and field competitions ended at the Paris Olympics. If the accumulated fatigue as the season moves towards its end, and after the high of the Games, should be evident, the 18 Olympic or world champions in the fray underlines the stature of the meet and the race to the Diamond League final in Brussels on September 14.
In the 18-event programme, winners in two disciplines are pretty much locked in, such has been the domination of its leading lights. Sweden’s Armaud Duplantis is one, after breaking the Olympic and world record in Paris, eventually clearing 6.25m after the rest of the competition had long finished. The other is the Greek long jumper Miltiadis Tentoglou, who too has utterly been on top of his event. He defended his Olympic long jump title in the French capital, is the reigning outdoor and indoor world champion.
Swiss long jumper Simon Ehammer, fourth in the Olympics, was asked at the media interaction what would it take to beat Tentoglou. “Luck”, he said. “He is a very consistent athlete,” he said, before adding: “The biggest event (Olympics) is done, so I don’t know he will take it.” Call it hope.
Neeraj Chopra though will go into the meet in a frame of mind very different to Tentoglou. Pushed to silver at the Olympics despite his season’s best effort of 89.45m, he fouled his all other attempts in Paris, with the frustration of perhaps realising that it was next to impossible to catch up for gold once Pakistan’s Ashrad Nadeem produced a stunning 92.97m in his second attempt.
Still, an Olympic second place is a tribute to Neeraj’s consistency at the highest level, especially in major meets over the last six years. The Tokyo Olympics champion’s dream of defending his Olympic javelin title went, but the 26-year-old has been frustrated by his inability to go all out once Nadeem set the mark in the final due to an adductor muscle injury he has nursed for the last couple of seasons.
“Mentally I was ready, but physically I was holding myself back. My legwork on the runway wasn’t good. To compensate for it I was trying to put in a lot of effort in the throws. Unless your legwork and technique are good, no matter how much you push yourself, it doesn’t work. I have been able to manage my injury though, it hasn’t worsened.”
This was Neeraj’s assessment on Saturday when he confirmed he would participate in the DL and chase a spot in the Diamond League final in Brussels, which is restricted to the top six ranked athletes. He is currently joint fourth after gaining seven points for finishing second in the only Diamond League leg of this season – Doha.
Neeraj, who was training in Switzerland after the Olympics, wants to finish the season before taking a call on undergoing surgery for his adductor muscle injury. Thursday’s competition though will be really tough. Nadeem is the only one among the top six finishers in Paris who is not participating.
Grenada’s Anderson Peters, who won bronze in Paris, Czech Republic’s Jakub Vadlejch, winner of last year’s Diamond League final at Eugene as well as this season’s Doha leg, both ahead of Neeraj, as well as Germany’s Julian Webber will be among the 10 competitors.
But Lausanne holds a special place for Neeraj and he will be keen to extend his fine record at the venue and win a third straight title. In 2022, Neeraj posted his first Diamond League win in this hilly Swiss city by Lake Geneva, going on to win the DL final in Zurich. Last year too, Neeraj won the Lausanne leg, called the Athletissima.
In the 800m, four men dipped under the 1min 42sec mark in the Olympic final, and four of the top five finishes in Paris will run on Thursday. Olympic champion Emmanuel Wanyonyi of Kenya, the third fastest man in history, Olympic silver medallist and world champion Marco Arop of Canada, and the fourth and fifth-placed finishers in Paris, American Bryce Hoppel and Spain’s Mohamed Attaoui will be running.
Norway’s Jakob Ingebrigtsen, whose destructive bid to beat Briton Josh Kerr saw him end up fourth in the 1,500m final in Paris, will be keen to prove a point. American Olympic champion Cole Hocker, surprise winner of that race after slipping through the inside lane on the home stretch, is in the field.
Athletics was among the big winners in Paris, with crowds of around 80,000 present at Stade de France each evening. World Athletics giving $50,000 to every winner was also gladly accepted. However, the one WA suggestion that struck a discordant note was doing away with the take-off board with a take-off zone, arguing that it will put an end to fouls prolonging the competition.
Jon Ridgeon, the British CEO of the world body, put forward the suggestion early this year, but it has come in for heavy criticism, led by four-time Olympic long jump champion, Carl Lewis. Ehammer, who has a personal best of 8.45m, weighed in on the subject.
“Don’t know who is supporting the new rule? The board is part of long jump and triple jump. If you take away the board, you lose the main part of the long jump. Hopefully, it stays.”