CHENNAI: Defending Olympic champion Neeraj Chopra fell short by 2 cms behind Jakub Vadlejch, who finished first in the Doha leg of the Diamond League on Friday.
It was a slow start from the Asian Games gold medalist, whose first throw of the evening resulted in a foul, while Jakub started on a positive note by throwing 85.87m in his first attempt. Another Indian in the fray, Kishore Jena, stood fourth after his first attempt (75.72m).
Neeraj quickly rallied back and climbed to the second spot in his second attempt with a throw of 84.93m, but the lead was short-lived as Grenadian Anderson Peters pushed Neeraj to third after round two. It soon turned into a contest between the world number one and two as Neeraj and Jakub went toe-to-toe in the following attempts.
Jakub bettered his numbers and recorded 88.38m, which was enough to close the night on the top spot. Neeraj threw 82.28m and ended the evening with 88.36m, finishing second, while Anderson finished third.
Asian Games silver medallist Kishore Jena finished ninth with a best of 76.31m.