Julian Weber, one of the noted rivals and off-field friends of double Olympic medallist Javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra, threw 90.40m in his last attempt to clinch the gold medal in the javelin throw at the European Athletics Championships in Birmingham on Saturday.

With this throw, he became only the second Javelin thrower to cross the 90m mark this season after world leader and Commonwealth Games champion Rumesh Pathirage of Sri Lanka.

Rumesh, who has been the best Javelin thrower of this season, crossed the 90m mark at the Rome Diamond with a new personal best of 92.67m, which is also the world lead.

— Beau Throws (@beau_throws) August 16, 2026

This is his second gold at the European Championships for the 31-year-old thrower from Germany, who continued his dominance in the continent. He regained the title from Tokyo Olympic medallist Jakub Valdjech, who finished fifth with 82.88m.

He took the lead in the first throw with a mark of 83.71m and maintained his lead till the last, only bettering it with a massive 91.51m at the last moment.

Weber only had two 90m throw before this including Doha Diamond League on 2025 when he had trumped Neeraj at the Zurich Diamond League last year with a personal best of 91.06m. Incidentally, that was the for the first time when both throwers had recorded a 90+ throw.

While Neeraj couldn’t better his 90.23m, Weber recorded a personal best of 91.51m later at the Zurich Diamond League. This is his third-ever 90+ throw and third-best throw of his career.

The duo is expected to feature together at the Lausanne Diamond League next week on August 21. The event will feature a tough field with world leader Pathirage, former World Champion Anderson Peters, reigning World champion Keshorn Walcott, and World Championships medallist Curtis Thompson apart from Weber and Neeraj.