Neeraj Chopra mindful & aiming for sky
CHENNAI: On August 8, Neeraj Chopra won his second Olympic medal in front of a packed crowd at Stade de France during the Paris Olympics. In less than two weeks, India’s Javelin star has put that medal aside to start preparing for the next challenge in the capital of Switzerland.
A victory parade for one of the most decorated track and field athletes can wait for now as he plans to participate in the Lausanne Diamond League before taking a well-deserved break.
“Initially, I was thinking I would participate in the Zurich Diamond League (5 September) and then the final one in Brussels (13-14 September). However, I and the team have decided to participate in the Lausanne Diamond League (August 22),” Chopra told reporters in a media interaction from Switzerland.
While Chopra gave his season-best in Paris to win a silver medal despite carrying a groin injury, he is keen to complete the season before consulting with the doctors for surgery.
“Luckily, the injury was under control in Paris. And we thought just like the previous season during the Tokyo Olympics, we would continue with the season instead of coming to India. The final decision about the treatment will happen once I talk with doctors after the season. There is one month left in the season, so I plan to communicate with doctors once I have some free time. I plan to come to India at the end of September.”
When asked about what was going through his mind during the Games, especially after his Pakistani counterpart, Arshad Nadeem landed a 92.97 m throw, Chopra candidly opened up about how at no point he thought that the target was not achievable.
“At no point, I thought, I could not do better. In Javelin, if you are throwing well, you can achieve that extra 3-4 metres. If we talk about Arshad Nadeem, his last personal best was 90.18 m which happened in the Commonwealth Games. And mine was 89.94 m. His throw went ahead and it wasn’t the case that I could not have done that but somewhere I could not push myself.”
“The legwork needed on the runway was not there. My second throw was around the same time when Nadeem threw his best one. At that time, I was positive and that’s how my throw came in but after that somehow I was not able to push myself. If your legwork and technique are not spot on, you cannot throw at your best no matter how much you try,” the 26-year-old mentioned.
While Nadeem and many other competitors of Chopra have been able to cross the 90 m mark, that number has been beyond his reach even though he has talked about not thinking about it on many occasions. Moving forward, his focus is to remain injury-free and work more on his technique.
“If I want to increase the distance from here, I have to remain injury-free. In my mind, I want to give my 100% best while throwing but because the injury has been going on, I could not give my 100% best. Somewhere my mind and body were holding me back there. There is some hesitation and I want to work on that first. Throwing sessions are the most important in javelin and I was not able to do many of these in the lead-up. It will take some time to go back to normal. Once that happens, I think, the technique will be better and I can cover more distance,” Chopra noted.