Of course, today there are many players around the world throwing the javelin further than 90 meters, and our Olympic champion Neeraj Chopra may not have reached this goal yet, but it is also true that Neeraj’s preparations are on the right track at the moment. He has now left behind the performance of the Olympic gold and has managed to improve his national record for the second time in a month. Diamond League, in which he could not win a single medal in the last several attempts, he removed the emptiness by winning the silver medal in Stockholm recently.
First, at the Pavo Nurmi Games in Finland, he improved the national record with his personal best (89.30m) and set alarm bells for all his competitors by winning the silver medal, and then went on to do what he could not in his previous attempts in Stockholm. This time in the Diamond League, he took silver for the first time with a performance of 89.94m, and he was only six centimetres behind his target of touching the 90m barrier.
All this happened at a time when he started his training much later than other contestants, and due to this, his weight had also increased by 13 to 14 kg. At that time, improving fitness for him was more than the race for medal, and which he worked day and night. His training base also kept changing before the Pavo Nurmi Games, he was practising in Finland, his old and favourite place. He then made his base in Uppsala, 70 km from Stockholm for Diamond League.
Now his eyes are fixed on three points. The first is the World Championship to be held in the US city of Angene, Oregon. Then there are the Commonwealth Games to be held in Birmingham from July 28th and then the five Diamond League events from August 6th to August 8th, which could be of great importance for his preparations ahead. However, just two days after his event at the Commonwealth Games, his next stop is the Diamond League in Monaco. He has not made any decision on participating in it yet. He relies heavily on German coach Klaus Bartonietz, who is working on his technique.
By the way, Neeraj’s full force is on the first two throws in which he gives all his energy. Obviously, for this, he comes pre-warmed up in hard training. However, the risk of injury in this approach is high as other athletes slowly get into the rhythm, sometimes even hitting their fifth or sixth throw. But this is not the case with Neeraj. Before the Olympics, many of his throws went out of range, wasting his energy. Now he has got rid of this problem. Now his priority is to pay attention to the angle and avoid injury.
Today he is the first player in the history of Indian sports who has won gold in the Asian Games and Commonwealth Games besides winning Olympic gold. Now after winning medal for the first time in Diamond League in gold the Olympics, his confidence has increased so much that his eyes are now on to the 113 years old record. The record is that after Andreas Thorkildsen of Norway in 2009, no player in world athletics has won gold in the Olympics and World Championship. But this is not going to be easy. Anderson Peters of Granada defeated Neeraj in the Diamond League in Stockholm with a throw of 90.31m. Czech Republic’s Jakub Vadlejch, who finished second after losing to Neeraj at the Tokyo Olympics, clocked a stellar 90.88m in the Doha Diamond League in May this year. Similarly, Oliver Helander of Finland managed to outperform Neeraj in the Nurmi Games with 89.83m. Apart from this, Julian Webar and Keshorn Walcott of Germany can put up a tough challenge for Neeraj as they performed more than 89 meters at the FBK Games held in the Netherlands. All eyes are now on the World Athletics Championships where he has an opportunity to break the 113-year-old record and then win the Commonwealth Games to defend the title.
