Watch: Neeraj Chopra misses the the landmark of 90m but beats his own national record

Neeraj Chopra put on another outstanding performance to finish second in the Diamond League meeting in Stockholm. This was Neeraj Chopra's first Diamond League top-three result. The Tokyo Olympics champion started out on a high note, throwing 89.94m in his first try. He missed the 90m mark by a fraction. Notably. no India has ever been able to reach that landmark.

However, the Indian star broke his previous national mark of 89.30m, which he set on June 14 when coming second at the Paavo Nurmi Games in Turku, Finland. Chopra began with a great throw, but failed to improve on his first try. His other throws measured 84.37 m, 87.46 m, 84.77 m, 86.67 m, and 86.84 m.

Neeraj Chopra is only the second Indian after discus thrower Vikas Gowda to finish in the top three in a Diamond League meet.

A video of his first throw has done rounds on the internet. Inspire Institute of Sports posted the video on their official Twitter handle. "BOOM! Ladies and gentlemen, your new National Record throw of 89.94 meters from our boy #NeerajChopra at the #StockholmDL," read the caption of the tweet.

Watch Neeraj Chopra's throw

BOOM! 🔥 Ladies and gentlemen, your new National Record throw of 89.94 meters from our boy #NeerajChopra at the #StockholmDL. 🇮🇳#CraftingVictories pic.twitter.com/OHovf5GoAD

— Inspire Institute of Sport (@IIS_Vijayanagar) June 30, 2022

Meanwhile, world champion Anderson Peters of Grenada earned first place with a best throw of 90.31m on his third try. Julian Weber of Germany finished third with a fifth-round throw of 89.08m, while Czech Republic's Jakub Vadlejch (88.59m) finished fourth.

Chopra said that he was confident of achieving the 90m mark this year. "Today, I feel good and after first throw, I thought I could throw even over 90m today. But it is OK as I have more competitions coming this year. I am close to 90m now and I can throw it this year. Despite the fact that I did not win tonight, I feel very good because I did my best," he said after the event.

The 24-year-old will lead a 22-member Indian athletics squad in the World Championships, which will be held from July 15 to 24 in the USA. The squad consists of 17 men and five women athletes.