India’s javelin star and Olympic gold medallist Neeraj Chopra achieved a historic milestone at the Doha Diamond League 2025, becoming the first Indian to breach the 90-metre mark in international competition with a throw of 90.23m.
However, despite leading for most of the competition, Chopra was overtaken in the final round by Germany’s Julian Weber, who clinched first place with a throw of 91.06m.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated Chopra on the social media platform X: “A spectacular feat! Congratulations to Neeraj Chopra for breaching the 90 m mark at Doha Diamond League 2025 and achieving his personal best throw. This is the outcome of his relentless dedication, discipline and passion. India is elated and proud.”
The achievement surpassed Chopra’s previous personal best and national record of 89.94m, set at the 2022 Stockholm Diamond League.
Chopra shared his mixed feelings about the result after the competition: “It is a little bit bittersweet result. I am very happy for the 90m, but this second place — it actually happened to me also when I competed in Turku and Stockholm. I threw 89.94, and I was always second. And also here. I broke the national record and got second today. But I am very happy also for Julian Weber. He threw 91, so we both broke 90m for the first time today. We have been trying this for so many years, so finally, we managed to get it.”
Neeraj threw 90.23m in the Doha Diamond League 2025—crossing the much-anticipated 90m milestone for the first time.
This is a significant milestone in Indian athletics history, even though he finished second to Julian Weber of Germany, who produced a world-leading throw of 91.06m in his final attempt.
Neeraj had been chasing the 90m mark since his breakthrough Olympic win in 2021. His previous best was 89.94m.
He is now the 3rd Asian and 25th javelin thrower ever to breach the 90m mark.
