Neeraj Chopra loses Diamond League trophy to Anderson Peters by 1cm

Star Indian athlete Neeraj Chopra missed the Diamond League trophy, falling short by just one centimetre at the King Baudouin Stadium in Brussels. He finished second in the season finale for the second year in a row with a throw of 87.86m.

Neeraj, the two-time Olympic medallist, came up with his best throw of 87.86 metres in his third attempt. It was only a centimetre short of Granada's Anderson Peters' 87.87m throw.

Anderson, who finished third at the Paris Olympics behind Neeraj, pipped his Indian counterpart as Germany's Julian Weber finished third with his best effort of 85.97 metres.

26-year-old Neeraj won the Diamond League trophy in 2022 and finished second last year losing to Jakub Vadlejch of the Czech Republic.

Grenada's Anderson, a two-time world champion, produced his best throw (87.87m) of the day in his first attempt.

The Indian javelin throw superstar, who has a personal best of 89.94m and season's best of 89.49m, had a series of 86.82m, 83.49m, 87.86m, 82.04m, 83.30m and 86.46m.

With this finish, Neeraj pocketed USD 12,000 for his second-place finish in the grand finale, marking the end of the prestigious Diamond League series after gruelling 14 legs. This also marked the end of the international athletics season.

Champion Anderson collected a Diamond League trophy and USD 30,000. He had made the Diamond League final cut after finishing first in the overall standings with 29 points.

Neeraj, on the other hand, qualified for the final for finishing fourth in the DL standings with 14 points collected from his two second-place finishes in Diamond League meets in Doha and Lausanne on May 10 and August 22.

Neeraj has been struggling with his fitness for a while now and is expected to meet a medic to heal his groin injury that has affected his form and performance this season.