Ever since he won the gold medal in Tokyo 2020, Neeraj Chorpa has become a household name in all over the country. He is now aiming to cross the 90m mark and is training hard to achieve it in the upcoming global events.
After winning the historic gold medal, he followed it with a silver medal at the World Championships and then he also won the Diamond League Finals. Apart from his heroics in various events, Neeraj understands the areas he needs to improve to get to ever evading 90m mark.
Neeraj came very close with his throw of 88.94m in the Stockholm leg of the Diamond League. However now he has assured the reporters and everyone else at the Revsports Trailblazer Conclave that he is working hard to get better and hopefully he will reach that landmark soon.
“I could have done that if I landed my foot a few centimetres ahead. Yes, it’s just a matter of six centimeters — but a magical mark for an athlete. Whenever you talk about a top athlete we all say like this he’s done 90m. But I’m not bothered about the pressure of expectations. It will happen when it has to. It could have happened last year or the year before, but maybe God has kept a perfect time and place for that,” He stated.
He does not carry any baggage of pressure considering that he has not achieved that landmark yet. He mainly tries to focus on the job at hand and that has given him success till now. “I don’t think much about the expectations. Yes, you have to handle both your own and others’ expectations. But when I’m competing, my mind goes blank,” he added.
Only a year left for the Paris Olympics and even this year, there’s a lot of events lined up. It includes the rescheduled Asian Games in Hangzhou. Neeraj will also be performing at the World Championships and Diamond League finals so he was prepare for the events according.
Basically, I’ve got three big events this year — the World Championships, Asian Games and the Diamond League Final. About when to start, I have not thought about it. I will plan with the coach assessing the situation in China. If it happens as per schedule in October, we may start the season a bit late so that we can stretch it till the Asian Games,” the star javelin-throw responded.
Four time Olympic gold medal winner Michael Johnson posted a video of Neeraj doing his drills and praised the Indian javelin-thrower’s athleticism. He even said that Neeraj has athleticism of a sprinter more than that of a javelin-thrower.
Reacting to his praise, Neeraj said, “I can never do sprint. Their speed is at different level. Maybe he liked my techniques and my exercises. and my response was just in a funny way.
“But yes, if I ever bump into him, I will sprint a bit and show him a bit of my skills. As for me, I’m just focused on improving on my javelin throws.”
It will be a busy year for him as it is packed with so many events. Neeraj will be extra careful especially after his injury last year that did not allow him to feature in the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham. He will try to avoid injuries as some of the most important events are around and Indian fans would want to see him fully fit ahead of these events.
