Neeraj Chopra He admitted that he was not at his best Paris 2024 OlympicsFear of aggravating an injury held him back.
Despite this, the Indian javelin ace managed to produce one of the best throws of his career at the Games, winning the silver medal with a throw of 89.45m.
Neeraj Chopra’s bid to defend his title in Paris failed as Pakistan’s Arshad Nadeem smashed an Olympic record of 92.97m to win the gold medal.
The Indian ace’s Paris 2024 campaign proved to be a mixed bag. Although Neeraj recorded the second and third best throws of his career in the final and qualifiers respectively, he could not mentally push himself in the final due to fears of re-injuring his groin.
“I feel like I could have gone further in the final because the two throws I threw in Paris (qualifying and the final) were my second and third best throws. In javelin, if you get the release angle right, you can reach an extra 3-4m.
“However, although mentally I was up to the task, subconsciously my body held back due to fear of aggravating my hip injury. I struggled to make the run-up on the Stade de France track, which resulted in many false attempts,” Neeraj Chopra said in a virtual press conference from Switzerland.
The men’s javelin at Paris 2024 was fiercely contested. Arshad Nadeem cleared the 90m twice and three athletes cleared the 88m. The top five athletes in the Paris 2024 final bettered Neeraj Chopra’s Tokyo 2020 gold medalist throw of 87.58m.
The competition on the field, especially from Arshad, pushed Neeraj to perform well in the finals. His silver medal came only after Arshad broke the Olympic record.
„I didn’t believe for a second that I couldn’t do it,” Neeraj said. “Arshad had thrown 90.18m earlier in the Commonwealth Games, mine was 89.94m.
„He suddenly got the extra distance in the final and I felt I could handle it. Again, with the injury, I couldn’t push myself the way I wanted to.
“It was my second throw after Arshad broke the Olympic record and I was in a very positive mood at that time. So, I got a strong throw. However, as time went by, I couldn’t physically manage it,” she added.
Even his training sessions for the Paris Summer Games were affected by his hip problem. Neeraj, who is expected to undergo surgery after his season with the Brussels Diamond League on September 14, suffered the injury shortly before the Ostrava Golden Spike at the end of May.
“Throwing sessions are important in training. I had to cut them down due to injury. If I throw less, I don’t get enough opportunities to work on technique. It will take time, but once it’s sorted, I’m sure the distance will increase.
“My throws were moving inward rather than in a straight line in Paris. Hand speed was good. But this line could have made a difference of a meter or two. So, now that I’m restricted because of my hip, I’ll focus more on the line and the angle of release and try to perfect it,” he said.
Although unable to defend his Olympic title in Paris, Neeraj Chopra became the fourth athlete from independent India to win two Olympic medals after Sushil Kumar, PV Sindhu and Manu Pakar.
He boasts of reaching 88m in consecutive major international competitions over the last few years. Neeraj plans to address his weaknesses in training and perfect his technique.
After the two-time Asian Games champion in the past few years, questions about his 90m reach resurfaced after Arshad Nadeem’s feat in the final.
“I left it to God. Work hard, prepare and give your best and then whatever happens will happen. The 90m target was now much talked about and I decided to go for it. I will focus on training and try to improve my technique as much as I can,” he said before signing off.