Neeraj Chopra produced his best throw in more than a year to finish second at the Lausanne Diamond League on Friday, narrowly missing out on the top spot to Sri Lanka’s Rumesh Tharanga Pathirage while collecting crucial qualification points.

Chopra registered a season-best 88.05m with his second attempt at the Stade Olympique de la Pontaise, briefly taking the lead before Pathirage responded with 88.14m in the third round.

Neither athlete improved in the remaining rounds, leaving the Indian nine centimetres behind the Sri Lankan. Grenada’s Anderson Peters finished third with a sixth-round effort of 86.69m.

The result earned Chopra seven Diamond League points, taking his tally to 12 and lifting him from seventh to fifth in the men’s javelin standings. He is now inside the top-six qualification zone for the season-ending Diamond League Final.

Pathirage leads the standings with 31 points, followed by Peters with 28. American Curtis Thompson and Trinidad and Tobago’s Keshorn Walcott occupy the next two positions with 18 points each. All four have qualified for the Final.

Chopra is three points ahead of Germany’s Thomas Röhler and Kenya’s Julius Yego, who have nine points each.

The Diamond League is contested across a series of meetings during the athletics season, with athletes earning points based on their finishing positions. The top six men’s javelin throwers qualify for the Final.

Chopra returns to 88m territory

The 28-year-old opened the competition with 83.54m, while Pathirage established the early lead with 85.99m before improving to 87.06m on his second attempt.

Chopra responded with 88.05m, improving his previous season best of 85.83m, recorded while finishing second at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.

It was also his longest throw since he registered 88.16m at the Paris Diamond League in June 2025.

Pathirage reclaimed the lead with his next attempt, and the narrow advantage proved decisive.

Peters completed the top three, while Walcott finished fourth with 83.71m. Marc Anthony Minichello was fifth with 80.06m, followed by Thompson at 78.13m, the Czech Republic’s Jakub Vadlejch at 77.32m, Ukraine’s Artur Felfner at 74.84m and Switzerland’s Simon Wieland at 73.23m.

Pathirage beats Chopra for third time in 2026

Lausanne marked the third meeting between Chopra and Pathirage this season, with the Sri Lankan finishing ahead of the Indian on each occasion.

The nine-centimetre gap in Lausanne was the narrowest margin between them this season.

Pathirage has emerged as one of the leading javelin throwers of 2026 and holds the world-leading mark of 92.62m, recorded at the Rome Diamond League.

Neeraj strengthens qualification prospects

Although Chopra’s place in the Diamond League Final is not yet mathematically secure, the Lausanne result has strengthened his position ahead of the remaining qualification events.

It also provided an encouraging sign after he failed to cross 86m in his first two competitions of the season.

Chopra’s last victory came at the Neeraj Chopra Classic in Bengaluru in July 2025.

First Published: Aug 22 2026 | 11:29 AM IST

UEFA is preparing a legal complaint against FIFA president Gianni Infantino over what it calls “unfair management” linked to his abandoned plan to open the World Cup to private investors. The European governing body has meanwhile suspended its threat to boycott FIFA competitions next season after receiving assurances from FIFA, but says it will keep pressure on Infantino ahead of his re-election bid in March.

Team India could only secure a draw in the second Test against Sri Lanka as Gautam Gambhir‘s men fell short of their target of two wins from the series. India did well in posting 509 runs on the board while batting first but the Lankans batted valiantly to force a draw despite being asked to follow-on. As the series ended with just one win to India’s name, former batter Mohammad Kaif targeted the tourists, questioning a number of players in the team, suggesting things could’ve been different if Virat Kohli was still playing.

Kohli has been credited by many as the man who transformed Indian cricket, especially in Tests. His energy levels and unforgiving attitude on the field helped India register many memorable wins.

Seeing the Shubman Gill-led side throw in the towel on the final day, Kaif wasn’t impressed.

“Playing Test cricket is not everyone’s cup of tea, boss. It is a very long game, and you have to keep bowling continuously. I felt that if someone like Virat Kohli had been playing this match, he would have been constantly shouting and keeping his team switched on. At times, I felt we took things for granted, thinking, ‘Just keep bowling, it will happen. The ball is turning so much, it will happen on its own’,” Kaif said in a video on his social media account.

Kaif also questioned the Indian team’s energy levels in the second Test as Gill failed to recreate Kohli-like atmosphere in lifting the spirits of his teammates.

“We created very few things ourselves. Our energy levels were also very low. That is why I am saying, if Virat Kohli had been playing this Test match, the result would have been different. The reason is that he would have been telling everyone, ‘Come on, Sarfaraz, come on, Jaiswal,’ and he would have gone after Sonal as well. Who were we getting into confrontations with? We were getting into confrontations with Kumara.”

“The player we actually needed to get out was Sonal, I saw a video of him saying something like, ‘Look at their faces, look at their faces.’ I just saw a video where he was saying this to Kumara in their local language. Basically, he was saying, ‘Look at their faces.’ The authority he had while batting showed that there was no pressure on him at all.”

“There was no pressure from the sledging, nor was there a big player coming up to him and trying to unsettle him. When players like Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, MS Dhoni or Ravichandran Ashwin are around and look at you like that, you feel the pressure. I felt we missed that as well.”

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Throughout the 2026 college football season, I’ll be giving you my just-for-fun picks for contests involving the best teams in the West across five conferences.

I start the season, like the teams we cover, with a perfect record.

This week, I am making picks for the following three games:

• San Jose State at USC
• Hawaii at Stanford
• Memphis at UNLV

You will want to read Stephen Vilardo’s Week Zero Previews of the contests as well.

Let’s get on to my picks!

Writes about football and basketball as a Senior Writer and hosts “The Nick Bartlett Show” for SuperWest Sports.

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The Indian women’s hockey team succumbed to the pressure of a must-win match and were knocked out of semi-final contention after playing out a goalless draw against Australia here on Saturday.

India needed a win to advance to the last four while a draw was enough for the Aussies to make it to the last four on the basis of more number of goals scored.

The goal difference for both teams stood identical at minus two but Australia had three strikes compared to India’s two. Both teams had drawn their opening Pool D match against China.

The Indian team, which had performed brilliantly before losing to the Netherlands by two goals in the first match of the second leg, looked out of rhythm on the day.

They missed several chances and struggled to retain possession against Australia, ranked just one place above them.

Chief coach Sjoerd Marijne even substituted goalkeeper Bichu Devi in the final five minutes trying to throw the kitchen sink at the opposition but to no avail.

Having finished third in the group, India will now play a classification match, while the Netherlands and Australia have advanced to the semi-finals from Pool E.

The Indian players lacked the agility and co-ordination they had shown so far in the tournament in the first half.

There were plenty of miss passes, and they repeatedly lost control in the midfield.

Australia started aggressively in the first quarter and appeared to have taken the lead in the second minute with a close-range shot, but India took a referral and the TV umpire disallowed the goal, ruling it dangerous.

In the fourth minute, Baljeet Kaur passed the ball to Ishika, but she lost possession inside the circle.

Australia came close to scoring again in the 10th minute when Amy Lawton attempted a reverse shot from the right, but veteran custodian Savita made a brilliant save.

In the 13th minute, Neha lost possession in midfield as Australia dominated the opening 15 minutes, although neither side managed to score.

In the very first minute of the second quarter, Australia earned a penalty corner, but the injection was poor. The ball still found the net after deflecting off an Indian defender’s stick.

Two minutes later, Grace Young attempted a reverse shot from inside the circle, which Bichu parried diving right.

Midfielder Ishika was injured in the 26th minute, while two minutes later Lalremsiami was hurt while attempting to snatch the ball from an Australian player.

She was struck on the knee at close range and received attention from the physio and umpire. She later returned to the field.

India received a penalty corner just before halftime when Salima Tete stepped forward, but the ball hit an Australian defender’s foot.

Deepika was not on the field at the time. India tried a variation and, instead of a direct slap hit.

Navneet played a square pass to Nikki, who was clumsy in execution as the ball bounced off her foot.

After a barren first-half, Australia had a golden opportunity in the 37th minute when Stephanie Kershaw took a powerful shot from in front of the goal after receiving a cross from the left, but the ball hit the side netting.

Two minutes later, Australia earned a penalty corner when Alice Arnott’s shot hit Sakshi. Kershaw’s shot was deflected into the penalty corner, and the Australian players began celebrating, but the ball bounced in the air and hit Shilpi’s body. The umpire ruled it a dangerous ball.

India had a chance to score in the final minute of the third quarter when Navneet passed the ball from the circle line to Baljeet on the right, who in turn sent a cross to Deepika, who failed to control the assist.

Australia earned their third penalty corner in the 46th minute when Neha lost the ball in midfield and an Australian player’s shot hit Sushila’s foot.

Claire Colwill’s drag-flick was blocked by the Indian defence. Australia earned a second consecutive penalty corner, but Salima took a referral, which determined that the ball had hit her stick.

India had another golden opportunity in the 48th minute when Salima made a brilliant run from the right and passed the ball to Navneet, but a misunderstanding between Navneet and Lalremsiami led to the ball slipping away.

Australia wasted a penalty corner in the 54th minute. Marijne removed the goalkeeper in the final five minutes, giving India an extra player. Australia’s penalty corner in the 59th minute was denied by Salima’s brilliant rushing out but by then India’s hopes were dashed.