Pathirage Leads Chopra’s Lausanne Challenge After Weber Exit

Neeraj Chopra will face a reshuffled javelin field at the Lausanne Diamond League on Friday night, with Sri Lanka’s Rumesh Tharanga Pathirage emerging as one of the leading challengers following Julian Weber’s withdrawal.Pathirage arrives in Lausanne in outstanding form after producing a huge 92.62m throw in Rome earlier this season, making him one of the few athletes in the field to have surpassed the 90m mark this year.Chopra, a two-time Lausanne winner, enters the contest with a season’s best of 85.83m and will be chasing another strong performance against a field that still includes several major names.

Anderson Peters, Jakub Vadlejch, Keshorn Walcott and Marc Anthony Minichello are among the notable competitors set to line up alongside the Indian star.The javelin final is scheduled to begin at 11:52 p.m. IST on Friday, with Pathirage’s 90m-plus form adding further intrigue to Chopra’s latest Diamond League appearance.

     Lausanne Entry List:     

Rumesh Tharanga Pathirage (Sri Lanka)

• Season best: 92.62m | Personal best: 92.62m

Curtis Thompson (USA)

• Season best: 87.59m | Personal best: 87.76m

Anderson Peters (Grenada)

• Season best: 86.38m | Personal best: 93.07m

Neeraj Chopra (India)

• Season best: 85.83m | Personal best: 90.23m

Jakub Vadlejch (Czech Republic)

• Season best: 85.24m | Personal best: 90.88m

Marc Anthony Minichello (USA)

• Season best: 84.11m | Personal best: 84.11m

Artur Felfner (Ukraine)

• Season best: 83.62m | Personal best: 84.32m

Keshorn Walcott (Trinidad and Tobago)

• Season best: 83.45m | Personal best: 90.16m

Simon Wieland (Switzerland)

• Season best: 80.76m | Personal best: 82.26