After 4 years and 26 events, Neeraj Chopras podium-streak snaps at setting where he made history
Neeraj Chopra failed to defend his World Championships crown at the same venue he won his historic javelin gold medal at Tokyo Olympics four years ago.
New Delhi: Neeraj Chopra's podium-finishing consistency came to an end on the very venue he had created history four years ago to win India's first track and field Olympics gold medal.
Rebuilt for the Tokyo Games, it was at the National Stadium that Chopra threw his javelin 87.58m to win gold medal on August 7, 2021.
As sports is often a great leveller, it was on the same setting he failed to defend his World Championships crown on Thursday.
In five attempts, Chopra's best throw of 84.03m, could only make him finish eighth in the standings, away from the podium for the first time since June 2021, when he was third in the Kourtane Games.
His gold medal act at Tokyo 2020 sparked a remarkable run of 26 events in four years in which Chopra finished among the medals at every event he competed in.
The Haryana-born picked up silver at the 2022 World Championships in Eugene with a throw of 88.13m, followed by gold at the competition's 2023 edition in Budapest (88.17m).
In the same year, he retained his Asian Games gold with a best effort of 88.88m in Hangzhou, followed by silver (89.45m) at Paris Olympics last year, where Pakistan's Arshad Nadeem stole a march with an Olympic record of 92.97m.
In between the four-year Olympic cycle, Chopra also won the Diamond League finale in 2022, followed by second-place finishes in the last three years (2023, 2024, 2025), even breaching his much-coveted target of 90m throw in the Doha Diamond League (90.23m) in May.
Disappointing eighth
But on a rainy Thursday, Chopra, just like Nadeem who finished 10th, was far from his best and got outperformed by compatriot Sachin Yadav, who impressed on debut with a fourth-place finish.
In slippery conditions, no thrower could reach anywhere near the 90m mark, with Trinidad and Tobago's Keshorn Walcott winning with a season's best throw of 88.16m.
Two-time world champion Grenada's Anderson Peters was second (87.38m), followed by USA's Curtis Thompson (86.67m).
Chopra's day began with 83.65m and then he improved to 84.03m that put him in the eighth place, a position he couldn't rise up from in his next three attempts, managing 82.68m in his fourth throw while the other two were foul throws.
A frustrated figure throughout the day, he fell sideways after his fifth and last attempt before elimination, removing his waist belt in disgust and hiding the anger on his face in his hands before regaining composure and walking away.