Kolkata : Neeraj Chopra had an iconic Olympics 2024 campaign, winning Silver Medal in Javelin Throw. However, Neeraj, who has series of winning golds in various competitions, and even threw the highest throw in Final qualification event. Therefore, he was expected to bag another gold. However, he fell short and won silver.
Pakistan’s Arshad Nadeem with a record throw of 92.97 metres clinched Gold Medal, and no athletes including Neeraj Chopra came near it.
Neeraj, with a throw of 89.34m came in 2nd position. Fighting groin injury, not being 100℅ fit, he still bagged the Silver medal.
Neeraj revealed that he never felt that he couldn’t cross the iconic distance that Arshad Nadeem set that day, despite being mentally ready to break it, he being physically not fully fit restrained himself. His leg work too didn’t go as expected. However, his 2nd throw, despite 4 fouls, was good because he was extremely positive on it.
He said in an interactive session, “I never thought I couldn’t do it… Arshad Nadeem’s previous best was at 90.18 metres which he threw at the Commonwealth Games, and my previous best was 89.94 metres… I couldn’t push myself to my extreme. Mentally I was ready but physically, I was retraining myself. My legwork on the runway was not how it should have been. My efforts were going in vain. My throw immediately after Nadeem’s throw was good because I was extremely positive”.
Throwing light upon his injury, he said, “It [the injury] was a big setback,” stressed Chopra. “We could not really predict when it would flare up and my mind was focused throughout on ensuring that I keep my groin safe. I think we maintained it well until now and we will take a decision [on surgery] after the end of the season.”
“The doctors in Doha had suggested surgery just months before the World Championships,” said Chopra. “In my mind I knew World Championships gold is the only thing left to achieve and my training was going well”.
“The decision was right [of not undergoing surgery then] because I would have missed the entire year with World Championships and we did not know how much I could recover before the Olympics. Even in the off season after the Asian Games, there was not much time for a surgery and be ready for the Paris Olympics,” he added.
The injury meant that Chopra could not get enough throwing sessions in training under his belt before the Games. This is something even coach Klaus Bartonietz too identified as a problem area for Chopra in their Olympics post-mortem.
“If I am throwing less in training, there is lesser focus on technique,” said Chopra. “The improvement needed in technique did not happen because of it.
“It will take some time to get this back on track, but I am confident once we do it, I’ll be able to throw better distance,” he added.
Neeraj is set to return to action in Lausanne Diamond League 2024 , on August 22. He will be eyeing for another glory being added to his name.
