Doha, May 10: Olympic and world champion Neeraj Chopra finished second at the Doha Diamond League meeting javelin throw event as his big final effort of 88.36m fell short by two centimeters of Jakub Vadlejch's winning effort here on Friday.

The 26-year-old Chopra trailed Czech Republic veteran Vadlejch -- who won the title with his third round throw of 88.38m -- all through the competition.

Chopra made a last ditch effort but his final round throw fell 2cm short of Vadlejch's mark as the Indian superstar failed to defend the title he had won won last year .

Two-time world champion Anderson Peters took the third sport with a best throw of 86.62m.

Kishore Jena's Diamond League debut ended in disappointment as he was eliminated after three rounds of throws, with 76.31m being his best. He began with a 75.72m, then fouled his second effort, before coming up with 76.31m to be at ninth after three throws each by all the 10 competitors.

The 28-year-old Jena has a personal best of 87.54m, a performance that fetched him a silver medal in the Hangzhou Asian Games last year, but it was not his day on Friday.

Vadlejch had won a silver in the Tokyo Olympics and a bronze in the 2023 World Championships, the two events in which Chopra had won gold.

Chopra had won the 2023 Doha Diamond League with a throw of 88.67m, ahead of Vadlejch (88.63) and Peters (85.88m).

The next Diamond League meeting which has men's javelin as a discipline will be in Paris on July 7.

At each DL meeting, athletes are awarded 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2 or 1 points for ranking first to to eighth respectively. The top six javelin throwers will compete in the Diamond League Finals in Brussels on September 13-14 and the winner will lift the DL champion's trophy.

Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.



Prayagraj (UP), May 20: The Allahabad High Court has directed the district magistrate and station house officer (SHO) concerned to take appropriate action in accordance with law regarding the alleged illegal construction of a temple in a public park of Awas Vikas Parishad at Buddh Vihar, Majhola in Moradabad district of Uttar Pradesh.

Hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) matter filed by Neeraj Kumar Tyagi, a division bench comprising Chief Justice Arun Bhansali and Justice Vikas Budhwar directed the Awas Evam Vikas Parishad, Moradabad to approach the DM and SHO concerned by way of an exhaustive application pertaining to the alleged illegal construction.

The petitioner has alleged that some people are illegally constructing a temple in a public park in the Awas Vikas Colony. When the matter was brought to the knowledge of the Awas Vikas executive engineer, he sent a junior engineer to the spot, who asked those involved in the construction to stop the work, but it was not stopped.

Thereafter, the executive engineer approached the Majhola SHO. However, when no action was taken, he wrote to the DM but despite this, no action has been taken so far.

Hence, the petitioner filed the petition in the court seeking the removal of the illegal construction from the park. During the course of the hearing, the counsel for the petitioner, Rajvendra Singh, contended that the Uttar Pradesh government issued an order dated October 29, 2009, prohibiting the construction of temples, churches, mosques, gurdwaras etc. on public roads, parks and public places. In this backdrop, he requested the court to intervene and direct the authorities concerned to take appropriate steps.

The petitioner also requested the court to grant him time to implead those involved in raising the construction as respondents in the PIL.

After hearing the petitioner's counsel, the court, in its order dated May 15, observed, "A perusal of the petition clearly indicates that construction is going on in the park and despite the Awas Evam Vikas Parishad requiring the police to intervene and stop the illegal construction, apparently, nothing has been done either by the district administration or the police station concerned."

The court has fixed July 8 for the next hearing in the matter.