Neeraj Chopra has expressed his relief at being rid of the 90m questions that dogged him at every press conference since he won the gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021. Since the Tokyo Games, where he became the country’s second individual gold medal winner at an Olympics, Neeraj has gone on to win plenty of accolades, including a silver at Paris Olympics last year and a gold and silver medals at the World Athletics Championships. But the 90m distance eluded him, with his best throw being just six centimetres short of the elusive threshold in javelin. That changed at the Doha Diamond League meet where he breached the 90m mark for the first time.
But that Doha event was a mixed one for Neeraj as he had ended second behind Germany’s Julian Weber, who also threw over the 90m mark for the first time in his career. Then at the Janusz Kusocinski Memorial event too, Neeraj had ended behind Weber.
At the Paris Diamond League meet on Friday evening, Neeraj finally defeated Weber. While talking to American media group Flo Track after the win, Neeraj was congratulated by the panellists on entering the 90m club earlier this year at Doha Diamond League.
To this, Neeraj responded: “I’m happy because before throwing 90m, (I used to get) lots of questions about it. Every interview, everyone asked me, ‘when will you throw 90m?’ So I’m very happy that one question is not there more. So I’m very happy with the throw. Hope I will throw much further than 90 metres.”
Neeraj revealed that he will compete after at the Ostrava event on June 24. Javelin legend Jan Zelezny, who is the director of the Ostrava meet, has been working as Neeraj’s coach. Neeraj called it “one of the greatest competitions in track and field”.
Talking about the Paris event, a “tired” Neeraj said he was happy to win: “It was a very good start. I felt really good at the start. But I had too much speed today. The runway was perfect, but I couldn’t handle my speed today. So I need to do some more work for my last attack. It was a really good run up. I’m happy with the run-up and also the throw itself. The start was good but I was hoping for some more good throws. I’m happy to win here.”
On being asked about his widespread popularity in track and field, Neeraj said: “I feel really good because in track and field you can say like I am famous from India. But you know about cricket, how big cricket is in India. I’m very happy to represent my country in track and field and I’m proud that some other junior athletes are also coming. Maybe in few years they will throw far and (also do well in) some other events in track and field. So I’m very happy that not only me, but also some other junior athletes are also coming up from India.”
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Neeraj was also asked if being a great javelin thrower also made him a good cricket bowler since the delivery actions were similar.
“I have never tried because in cricket we have to throw the ball down. But in javelin (we throw up). But definitely I will try baseball, throw some pitches when I will be in USA. After Tokyo (winning Olympics gold in 2021) I was in Chula Vista for three months training. Maybe, next time when I come to USA, I will try baseball.”
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