New Delhi: A day after marking his comeback at the Doha Diamond League, double Olympic and World Championships medallist Neeraj Chopra marked an unexpected appearance at the inaugural Athletics Federation of India (AFI) annual awards on Saturday here as the best of Indian athletics gathered to honour its past, present and future.
The cynosure of all, Chopra said he was satisfied with his comeback and expressed confidence of hitting top form soon. The 28-year-old ended an eight-month hiatus with a fourth-place finish in Doha, logging a best of 85.69m. The event was won by Sri Lanka’s Rumesh Tharanga Pathirage (88.68m) while reigning World Championships silver medallist Anderson Peters (86.38m) and Worlds bronze medallist Curtis Thompson (85.99m) were next.
Chopra, however, ticked an important box, achieved the mark of 82.61m set by AFI to qualify for the Commonwealth Games and the Asian Games. Chopra and women’s 3,000m steeplechase and 5,000m champion Parul Chaudhary were named Best Athletes of the Year for 2025.
The javelin ace, who trained in South Africa and then in Europe, said he was still recovering from a back injury and was happy with the way his body responded to the competition pressure in Qatar.
“I would not say I am fully fit. The body is not what it was before last year, but I am getting there. All things considered, I am happy with my effort and am looking forward to Commonwealth Games,” Chopra said.
“There was no pressure of competing after so long. I just wanted to play. I wanted to do what I was doing in training. I didn’t try to put in any extra effort. You must have seen that I didn’t want to exert myself. The goal was to get a good throw in, and once I got 85m, I was satisfied.”
While the past year saw the former world champion break the 90m mark, he was also bogged down with injuries. Already managing a groin niggle, he injured his back and was forced out of action. That, however, was not the only injury he was dealing with.
“I had an Achilles injury in my blocking (left) leg. I also had an injury in my shoulder and elbow. Then, of course, there was the back issue. I have been having some or the other injury in my groin for a long time. So, at the start of the year, I sat down with my team and we went over my programme calmly. I decided it was important to get a good rehab,” he said.
“That’s why we took things slowly this year. I usually start throwing in January or February. But this time, I started it in May. I didn’t want to take any chances,” he added.
Appreciating Sri Lanka’s Pathirage, Chopra acknowledged the growing competition in South Asia and said it the CWG and Asian Games competitions were now as tough as Olympics.
“It’s good for Asian athletics as a whole. There is a lot of competition in South Asia,” he said.
The evening saw Indian athletics legends PT Usha, GS Randhawa, Anju Bobby George and Bahadur Singh awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award.
