New Delhi: Olympics champion Neeraj Chopra has become the world’s number one javelin thrower for the first time in his career in the latest men’s javelin rankings released by World Athletics. And he is the first Indian to achieve this feat. Neerj topped the rankings with 1455 points, 22 points ahead of world champion Anderson Peters of Granada with 1433 points. Tokyo Olympics silver medalist Jakub Wadlej of the Czech Republic finished third with 1416 points. Neeraj reached world number 2 on August 30 last year.
Neeraj Chopra won gold medal in javelin throw at Tokyo Olympics. 25-year-old Neeraj started being in the news continuously from there. Neeraj also holds the throw record of 89.94 meters, which he set in the Diamond League held in Stockholm. Neeraj Chopra won the Diamond League played in Switzerland in September 2022. He was also the champion of the recently played Diamond League in Doha. Neeraj will now play the next tournament of the 2023 season in Hengelo, Netherlands. The competition, which starts on June 4, is called the Fanny Blankers-Cohen Games. After this tournament, from June 13, Neeraj will appear at the Nurmi Games to be held in Turku, Finland.
Anand, Carlson, Liren and Yifan will play in the Global Chess League
Dubai: The first tournament of the Global Chess League (GCL) will see experienced players like Viswanathan Anand, Magnus Carlsen, Hou Yifan and Ding Liren take on the challenge. The GCL is a joint tournament of Tech Mahindra and the International Chess Federation (FIDE). The list of players participating in the tournament was announced on Tuesday.
The first season of the GCL will be held from June 21 to July 2 at the Dubai Chess and Culture Club in association with the Dubai Sports Council. Liren is the defending world champion, Carlson is the world number one, Anand is a five-time world champion while Yifan is a four-time women’s world champion.
The tournament will be played in team format. Each team will consist of six players with at least two female players. World Rapid Champion 2021, Nodirbek, Abdustarov, 2008 Blitz Chess World Champion Linear Dominguez, three-time Blitz Champion Alexander Grishchuk and 2018 World Rapid Champion Daniil Dubov will also participate in the tournament.