New Delhi, Jul 1 (PTI) Fresh from his exploits in the Diamond League in Lausanne, Olympic champion Neeraj Chopra on Saturday hinted that he would straightaway compete in the World Athletics Championships in Budapest starting August 19, without participating in any other meet in intervening period.

The 25-year-old Chopra, who returned to action after a one-month injury lay-off, won his second consecutive Diamond League title in Switzerland on Friday night with a throw of 87.66m. He had also won the season-opening Diamond League meet in Doha on May 5.

“The next competition, Budapest, will be a big one for me,” Chopra said in Lausanne after winning the men’s javelin throw event.

“I wanted to win so I’m super happy with the results but I also want to go back to training and fix some of the things that I noticed and those are going to make me stronger.” He termed Lausanne as a lucky city for him.

“Lausanne always treats me well. Last year, I won and this year too, so I look forward to coming again next year and win again,” said Chopra, referring to the win last year, which was his maiden Diamond League title.

The men’s javelin throw qualification round of the Budapest World Championships is scheduled for August 25, which is more than 50 days from now. If he does not compete in the intervening period, Chopra will be going to the World Championships after being part of just two top competitions — Doha and Lausanne legs of Diamond League.

Chopra did not specifically mention World Championships as his next competition but there are no big event in Budapest before the August 19 to 27 showpiece.

The highest level competition listed in the World Athletics website is the Hungarian Senior National Championships in Budapest on July 7-8, a ‘B’ category event (like National Championships in India).

A top official of the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) told

Source: PTI News