Double Olympic medallist Neeraj Chopra is set to participate in the Lausanne Diamond League, popularly known as Athletissima, on August 21.
Neeraj will be competing in a stacked field similar to Commonwealth Games 2026 along with European stars.
The field has Olympic champion Arshad Nadeem of Pakistan, reigning World Champion Keshorn Walcott of Trinidad and Tobago, freshly crowned Commonwealth Games champion and World leader Rumesh Pathirage of Sri Lanka, and former World and Olympics champions Anderson Peters of Grenada and Thomas Rohler of Germany.
Along with these athletes, Tokyo Olympics silver medallist Jakub Vadlejch,German Julian Weber and World Championship Curtis Thompson, the world number two this year, will be there.
Five of these throwers, Neeraj, Arshad, Pathirage, Peters, and Walcott competed in the Commonwealth Games Javeliin final four days back with Pathirage winning the title with a monster throw of 89.75m.
The Sri Lankan has been in impeccable form with world lead and top five throws of the season. He is also the only thrower to cross the 90m mark this season with 92.67m throw at the Rome Diamond League.
Pathirage’s exploits earned him praise from Neeraj. “He’s a good boy. He’s a friend of mine. This year he really threw well. It’s good he’s doing something great for Sri Lanka,” said Neeraj about Pathirage.
Neeraj, who won silver medal at the Commonwealth Games, produced a season best throw of 85.83m to finish at the second spot. This was the second major competition for Neeraj after an injury layoff after the Tokyo World Championships 2025 where he had finished eighth.
“I am very happy. I am always happy whenever the national anthem is played. But it’s ok [to win silver] as I did my personal best and my comeback is getting better,” he said after the silver medal win.
It was not a great outing for reigning Olympic champion Arshad and World champion Walcott
Arshad couldn’t record a throw beyond 80m and finished ninth with a best throw of 77.41m. Walcott finished sixth with a best throw of 82.55m but that was his only 80m plus throw and it came on his last effort.
Lausanne Diamond League will also act as the precursor to the Asian Games where Pathirage, Arshad and Neeraj will clash again.