While Neeraj Chopra made history by being the first Indian to win gold at the World Athletics Championships, the javelin thrower admits that his true goal in the final was to break the 90m barrier.
However, things did not go as planned, and Neeraj made his best throw of 88.17 m in his second attempt, maintaining his lead until the very end to win the gold. Arshad Nadeem, the Commonwealth Games champion, took silver with 87.82 m, while Czech Republic’s Jakub Vadlejch took bronze with a best throw of 86.67 m.
Neeraj who looked a bit disappointed told reporters in the post-match conference, “I wanted to throw more than 90m tonight. But it needs all parts of the puzzle to be there. I couldn’t put it all together this evening. Maybe next time.”
Despite taking the lead in the second round, which he maintained throughout the final, the 25-year-old desired to smash his own record and push it higher in his final throw.
“After the second round, I was thinking of pushing myself because I knew that I could get a better throw. But there is a lot of pressure on technique and speed. We have to push a lot in the qualifying round. There was only a single day for recovery so it was also a big factor. I go forward with the motivation of pushing myself till the last throw,” Neeraj said.
The Olympic gold medalist from Tokyo wasn’t the only Indian in the final; Kishore Jena (best of 84.77 m) and DP Manu (best of 84.14 m) finished fifth and sixth, respectively.
This was Neeraj’s second World Championship medal, following a silver in 2022.
Anju Bobby George had previously won bronze for the country in the women’s long jump at the 2003 World Championships. He also won gold at the 2018 Commonwealth Games and the Asian Games.
Neeraj will return to the field at the Asian Games in Hangzhou, which will take place from September 23 to October 8. This competition will be the 25-year-old’s final major competition of the year.