Men's World Athlete of Year 2023: Neeraj Chopra, Noah Lyles among nominees for prestigious award
Men's World Athlete of the Year of 2023: Star Indian athlete Neeraj Chopra has been nominated for Men's World Athlete of the Year in 2023. The Olympic and world champion is among the 11 athletes on the world athletics body's shortlist for the prestigious award, which will be presented later this month.
This is the first time Neeraj has made the list of nominees, where he will have to compete against modern-day track and field legends.
Neeraj will compete against shot put world champion Ryan Crouser, pole vault star Mondo Duplantis, and 100m and 200m world champion Noah Lyles.
Neeraj Chopra ended off another outstanding season with a gold medal in men's javelin at the Asian Games. The Olympic champion recovered from a slow start to win Gold in Hangzhou earlier this month with a season-best of 88.88m. Kishore Jena won silver with a career-best throw of 87.54 and qualified for the Paris Olympics as India placed 1-2 in a historic feat at the Asian Games.
Neeraj was unable to defend his Diamond Trophy, coming second in the Diamond League final in Eugene with a best performance of 83.80m, trailing Czech Republic's Jakub Vadlejch. In August, Neeraj finished second in the Zurich Diamond League.
However, with a spectacular 88.17m throw, Neeraj made history by being the first Indian to win Gold in the World Athletics Championships. The gold medal in Budapest aided him in completing the gold set of Olympic and World Championship gold medals.
- With inputs from agencies
