India’s two-time Olympic medallist and star javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra won the third title of the season on Tuesday by winning the gold medal at the Golden Spike meet in Ostrovo, Czech Republic. In a competition where no other thrower could reach the 85m mark, Chopra won the title at this World Athletics Continental Tour Gold event with a modest throw of 85.29m.

South Africa’s Douw Smit came second with an 84.12m throw and Grenada’s Anderson Peters settled for the third spot with a throw of 83.63m.

This was Chopra’s maiden appearance at Golden Spike, where eight other top competitors were in the fray. Owing to fitness issues, he had skipped the last two editions of Golden Spike, where his coach Jan Zelezny had won the gold nine times.

This title adds another feather in the cap of Chopra, who had emerged on top in the Paris Diamond League on June 20. It has been an impressive season so far for the 27-year-old reigning world champion. This was his first Diamond League title in two years in Paris. He had breached the elusive 90m mark to finish second in the Doha Diamond League in May.

Chopra started his Paris Diamond League campaign with a foul throw, much to his fans’ disappointment. He, however, bounced back, regained his composure and achieved a distance of 83.45m in the second round. His gold medal throw of 85.29m came in the third round. Then came two more sub-par throws of 82.17m and 81.01m. In the sixth round, he committed another foul. However, the winning throw was enough in the end to clinch the title.

Chopra started his 2025 season with a win at an invitational meet in Potchefstroom, South Africa, where he threw 84.52m. His big moment came at the Doha Diamond League, where he shattered his personal best with a 90.23m throw and crossed the 90m mark for the first time. Yet he finished second to Germany’s Julian Weber, who achieved a best throw of 91.06m. At the Janusz Kusocinski Memorial in Chorzow, Poland, Chopra had again finished second (84.14m) to Weber (86.12m).

Chopra will again be in action at the Neeraj Chopra Classic scheduled for July 5 in Bengaluru. This international javelin competition, India’s highest-tier athletics meet so far, is the outcome of a collaboration between Chopra, JSW Sports, the Athletics Federation of India and World Athletics.