Neeraj Chopra begins Diamond League title defence with win in Doha
Doha, May 5: Olympic champion javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra began his Diamond League title defence with a comfortable win in the season-opening leg here on Friday, with a world leading and fourth career-best effort.
The 25-year-old Chopra, who had pocketed the 2022 Diamond League Final trophy in Switzerland in September last, beat a star-studded field with a best throw of 88.67m to begin his season in style.
Chopra hit his straps in his first attempt itself with a world-leading throw of 88.67m, which was his fourth career-best effort to position himself on the top of the pile. He maintained the lead till the end to win the event in his second appearance at the Qatar Sports Club.
He had finished fourth in his first appearance here in 2018.
Silver medallist Jakub Vadlejch of Czech Republic went agonisingly close to Chopra's best mark with a second round throw of 88.63m, four centimeter short of the Indian's effort.
Vadlejch had also won silver in the Tokyo Olympics. He had also won a silver in the Doha Diamond League last year with a 90.88m throw.
Reigning world champion Anderson Peters, who had won the event here last year with a monster throw of 93.07m, finished third with a modest best throw of 85.88m.
Chopra, who has a personal best of 89.94m, could not sustain the tempo of his first attempt as he could only send the spear to 86.04m and then to 85.47m before fouling his throw in the fourth. He managed 84.37m and 85.62m in his fifth and sixth attempts.
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Kerala Story 2: Report reveals more people converting to Hinduism in Kerala than other religions
Thiruvanthapuram: Amid the uproar over ‘The Kerala Story 2‘and allegations that the film wrongly portrays Kerala, an analysis by The News Minute has presented claims that contradict the narrative shown in the movie.
In a teaser released by the filmmakers, the film depicts several Hindu women being converted to Islam.
However, TNM’s analysis of Kerala Gazette records shows a different trend.
According to the report, Hinduism has attracted the highest number of converts in the state, followed by Islam and Christianity, offering a data-based view of religious conversion patterns in Kerala.
The plot of the upcoming film ‘The Kerala Story 2’ revolves around a two-decade-old conspiracy theory alleging a jihadist scheme to marry Hindu women and convert them to Islam. The film’s release has been stayed by the Kerala High Court on Thursday, the movie was supposed to release on Friday, February 27.
The first film, released in 2023, claimed that 32,000 women had been converted by jihadists in Kerala. That claim was later questioned by the Supreme Court of India, which pulled up the makers for using fake data.
Despite the premise of the sequel remaining the same, the producers have claimed that this time they spent seven months conducting “research.”
The TNM team stated in its report that for several months they researched religious conversions in Kerala and uncovered what they described as significant facts.
According to the report, Hinduism has been attracting the largest number of converts in the state, more than Christianity or Islam.
An earlier TNM report in the same series had pointed to the existence of a statewide network of Hindutva groups, including the Vishva Hindu Parishad, which focuses on converting Dalits to Hinduism.
The News Minute in its report mentioned that their team went through more than 10,000 pages of the Kerala Gazette and found that 365 Keralites converted to Hinduism between January and December 2024.
Of these, 262 were Dalit Christians and Muslims. The report stated that many among them were induced by the promise of securing Scheduled Caste status after conversion to Hinduism.
Who has converted to which religion ?
According to the published figures in the state gazette, according to The News Minute, conversions to Islam included 276 people who moved from Hinduism to Islam, comprising 154 women and 122 men. In addition, 67 people converted from Christianity to Islam, of whom 42 were women and 25 were men. Taken together, a total of 343 people converted to Islam during the period.
Meanwhile, conversions to Hinduism accounted for 329 people who moved from Christianity to Hinduism, including 180 women and 149 men. Another 36 people converted from Islam to Hinduism, with 24 women and 12 men. In total, 365 people converted to Hinduism.
In Christianity 234 people shifted from Hinduism to Christianity, comprising 130 women and 104 men. A further 21 people converted from Islam to Christianity, including 13 women and 8 men. Altogether, the total number of people who converted to Christianity stood at 255 .
