Former Olympic champion Thomas Rohler welcomed Neeraj Chopra to the 90m club after the Indian athlete delivered a stellar performance at the Doha Diamond League.

On Friday, Neeraj crossed the 90m mark for the first time in his career, surpassing his previous best of 89.94m set at the 2022 Stockholm Diamond League.

In Doha, the 27-year-old recorded a throw of 90.23 metres, although it wasn’t enough to secure the top spot. Germany’s Julian Weber clinched first place with a throw of 91.06 metres.

Rohler, the gold medallist at the 2016 Rio Olympics, praised Neeraj for his outstanding achievement.

Rohler wrote, “Welcome to the 90m+ club.”

Rohler, who won the gold medal in Rio with a throw of 90.30 metres, had previously bested Kenya’s Julius Yego (88.24m) and Trinidad and Tobago’s Keshorn Walcott (85.38m) at the 2016 Olympics.

Notably, Rohler’s personal best came at the 2017 Doha Diamond League, where he registered an impressive 93.90 metres. He currently ranks third on the all-time list of javelin throws, behind Jan Zelezny’s world record of 98.48 metres and Johannes Vetter’s 97.76 metres.

After Neeraj crossed the 90-metre mark, Weber followed suit by breaching the milestone for the first time in his career as well, becoming the 26th athlete to do so.

Reflecting on his performance in Doha, Neeraj said he will continue to push himself and aims to perform even better in upcoming events.

“A lot of people had this question – whether I’d be able to throw 90m or not – since I hadn’t done it despite competing since 2018. I had broken 88–89m before but not 90m. But finally, not just for me, but at least for Indians, the burden has reduced. I feel I can do even better,” Neeraj told Revsportz in an interview.

Neeraj became only the third Asian to breach the 90m mark, following Pakistan’s Olympic champion Arshad Nadeem (92.97m) and Chinese Taipei’s Chao-Tsun Cheng (91.36m).