Doha, May 9 (IANS): India's Olympic champion Neeraj Chopra and Asian Games silver medallist Kishore Kumar Jena will be kicking off their 2024 outdoor season in the third meet of the Wanda Diamond League 2024 set to take place at the Qatar Sports Club, Doha, Qatar, on Friday.
The premier athletics meet will feature champions competing across 14 Diamond disciplines, with 2020 Olympics gold medallist and reigning World and Asian Games men's javelin throw champion Neeraj Chopra as the favourite to start his season on a winning note.
Chopra will be joined by countryman Kishore Jena in the men's javelin competition, along with familiar names such as former World Champion Anderson Peters (Grenada) and Tokyo 2020 silver medallist Jakub Vadlejch (Czech Republic). Chopra won the 2022 Diamond League series but finished as runner-up to Vadlejch last season.
This is Chopra’s first appearance in the 2024 Diamond League season. In a pre-event press conference, Chopra shared his ambition of breaching the 90m mark this year, with an opportunity to achieve that feat at the Doha Diamond League.
At the pre-event press conference, Chopra said, “People have been asking me this question since 2018 when I threw 88.06 at the Asian Games. But, a lot of things happened, my elbow injury, the surgery & now I have been stuck between 88 and 90m. But I really want to break the barrier this year. Even last year, I had said that Doha is famous for 90m. But we were not lucky due to too much headwind.
"But maybe tomorrow we'll have a good day. And, obviously, it is the Olympics year and India is a big country and everyone expects Gold. But it’s really hard in the Olympics because the best from the world are competing with you. My focus is to just stay healthy and concentrate on my technique. And yes, if I stay healthy everything will be good,” said Chopra.
Other top athletes from various other disciplines will also be competing in Doha. Reigning Olympic gold medallists Steven Gardiner (Bahamas) and Soufiane El Bakkali (Morocco) will be in action, with Gardiner competing in the men's 400m while Bakkali aims to win the men's 3000m steeplechase.
Here's everything you need to know about the upcoming Diamond League 2024 - Doha live coverage and broadcast:
What: Diamond League 2024 - Doha
When: May 10, 2024
Where: Doha, Qatar
Time: 9:30 PM onwards
Live streaming in India: JioCinema
TV broadcast in India: Sports18 - 1 (HD), Sports18 - 3