Neeraj Chopra competes at the Paavo Nurmi Games (© Organisers)
Olympic champion Neeraj Chopra will go up against world leader Max Dehning and European champion Julian Weber in a javelin clash at the Paavo Nurmi Games, a World Athletics Continental Tour Gold meeting, in Turku on 18 June.
The event forms part of Chopra’s preparations ahead of his Olympic title defence in Paris in August, as he returns to a meeting at which he placed second in 2022.
In that competition two years ago, India’s Chopra threw 89.30m in a contest won by Finland’s Oliver Helander with a PB of 89.83m. Chopra’s lifetime best is 89.94m, achieved in Stockholm in 2022.
Chopra also won the world title in Budapest last year with a throw of 88.17m.
According to his coach Klaus Bartonietz, Chopra threw 90.40m last year at a training camp in Belek. “Breaking 90 metres is just a matter of time,” Bartonietz said at the World Javelin Conference in Kuortane last year. “However, we say that it's just a number.”
Helander also returns to compete in Turku and joining them at the Paavo Nurmi Stadium will be Germany’s Dehning and Weber, who finished fourth at the Tokyo Olympics and the past two editions of the World Championships, plus Finland’s Lassi Etelatalo.
The 19-year-old Dehning threw 90.20m in Halle in February – an improvement of more than 11 metres on his previous best. That mark by the world U20 silver medallist remains the world lead.
These five athletes are the first to be announced for this year’s Paavo Nurmi Games, the seventh Continental Tour Gold event of the season.
Organisers for World Athletics
