Olympic champion Neeraj Chopra’s New Year resolution: Breach the 90m, consistently
The Tokyo 2020 gold medallist said that he is confident of achieving his goal in a packed 2022 season.
Indian javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra may be the reigning Olympic champion but the 24-year-old believes he needs to breach the 90m mark consistently to truly establish himself as world class in his sport.
Neeraj Chopra’s personal best is 88.07m, achieved at the Indian Grand Prix back in March 2021. His gold-winning throw at Tokyo 2020 measured 87.58m.
“Winning the Olympic gold was a dream come true but I think breaching 90m is important to be considered world class. Every javelin thrower aspires to do that,” Neeraj Chopra, who won India the first-ever Olympic medal in athletics, said during a media interaction.
“I am short by 2m but believe I can do it (beat 90m) this year. I don’t know in which competition, but I do have a lot of big events like the Commonwealth Games, Asian Games, world championships and Diamond League lined up in 2022,” Chopra added.
In the current elite javelin throw landscape, Germany’s Johannes Vetter, the 2017 world champion, is often considered the man to beat and Neeraj Chopra definitely announced himself as a major challenger for the title after his Tokyo 2020 exploits, where he bested Vetter.
Neeraj Chopra, four years younger to Vetter, however, knows breaching the 90m mark consistently is something he needs to achieve to go toe-to-toe with his German rival in the years to come.
“There are quite a few athletes who have breached 90m. Vetter does that consistently. Among the new generation, 2019 world champion Anderson Peters of Grenada is also getting close to the mark. The competition will be tough in the coming years,” Neeraj Chopra noted.
Addressing questions about what he’s doing differently in training to achieve his 90m goal, Neeraj Chopra revealed, “I don’t feel I need to change my technique, but I am working on fine-tuning it. Little improvements will add up and help me cover the remaining few centimetres.”
Neeraj Chopra hasn’t competed since his Tokyo 2020 campaign and is currently training at the Chula Vista Elite Athlete Training Center in the USA to get himself ready for a busy 2022 season.
The youngster also revealed he had put on almost 12kgs after the Tokyo Games but has already lost almost half of it and is progressing well.
In 2022, Neeraj Chopra is eyeing medals at the Diamond League events, the athletics world championships in July and both the Commonwealth and Asian Games. The Indian is the defending Asian and Commonwealth champion.