Turku, June 19: India’s Olympic and world champion javelin throw star Neeraj Chopra snared his maiden gold medal at the Paavo Nurmi Games here on Tuesday, returning to action in style after being laid low for a month due to a niggle.Chopra, who claimed the silver here in 2022, produced the winning effort of 85.97m in his third attempt to lead the field for a major part of the competition, which also featured 19-year-old German prodigy Max Dehning who is the youngest member of the 90m club.
Home favourite Toni Keranen claimed the silver medal with a best throw of 84.19m, while his compatriot and last edition’s gold-medallist Oliver Helander took the third spot with 83.96m.
The 26-year-old Chopra came into this event following a second-place finish in the Doha Diamond League and a gold in the Federation Cup in Bubaneswar last month.
After these two events, Chopra took a break after feeling “something” in his adductor (a group of muscles located on inner thighs).