Neeraj Chopra To Compete At Ostrava Golden Spike - Will He Be 3rd Time Lucky?

Neeraj Chopra - the two-time Olympic medal-winning Indian javelin thrower - announced on Thursday that he would compete at the Ostrava Golden Spike 2025 athletics meet in Czech Republic on June 24.

Neeraj, who will compete at the Doha Diamond League on May 16 and then at the NC Classic on May 24 respectively, said he is excited about the event in Ostrava.

"I am excited to announce that I will take part in the Golden Spike meeting in Ostrava this year. It is a legendary race and this year will be exceptional," Neeraj said in a press release issued by the organisers of the tournament.

With legendary Czech Jan Železný - three-time Olympic gold medallist - being Neeraj's coach, the Tokyo Olympics gold medallist is inspired to make his mark.

"My coach Jan Železný has not only won there many times but also acts as the director of the whole event," added Neeraj.

“I feel great and I hope you will see really nice and far-reaching feasts. I look forward to meeting you all,” he added.

But the question is: will Neeraj be third time lucky? He was supposed to compete at the Ostrava Golden Spike in 2023 and 2024, but on both occasions, he withdrew due to injuries.

Last year, he was present at the event as a special guest - the most prestigious international athletics meet in the Czech Republic, and a World Athletics Continental Tour Gold label tournament. It is a second-tier annual global athletics competition, only after the Diamond League series.

Neeraj opened his season in 2025 with a gold medal-winning performance at the Potchefstroom Invitational in South Africa in April. He won the gold medal in the six-man event with a throw of 84.52m. This performance also showed that he recovered from the groin injury that troubled him before and during the Paris Olympics. Neeraj's performance was affected by the injury since it affected his run-up, resulting in so many invalid attempts. He also fractured metacarpal in his left hand.

At the Doha Diamond League, Neeraj, who won the DL meet in 2023 with an 88.67m effort, finished second last year with a throw of 88.36m, behind Tokyo 2020 silver medallist Jakub Vadlejch of the Czech Republic. He will look to improve his performance this year before focusing on the NC Classic, a World Athletics A-level meet named after him.

With top javelin throw stars, including Thomas Röhler and Anderson Peters, confirming their participation, the event in Bengaluru is going to pose an exciting challenge to Neeraj in front of the home crowd.

With back-to-back events scheduled in May, Neeraj – who won a silver medal at last year's Paris Olympics – pulled out of the Asian Athletics Championships, which will be held in Gumi, South Korea, from May 27 to 31.

The Golden Spike javelin throw competition will draw top athletes from across the world, including Vadlejch.

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