New Delhi: Neeraj Chopra will be back in competition after a nine-month gap at his favourite Doha Diamond League on Friday. It is the same championship where the two-time Olympic medallist and 2023 world champion recorded his career-best throw of 90.23m last season, but that will be far from his mind when he hits the runway at the Qatar Sports Club.
Since that effort in Doha and after five years of steady performances at the top, Neeraj has struggled with his form compounded by injuries. He finished eighth at the World Championships, which he attributed to a back injury during training, and parted ways with coach and legend Jan Zelezny. He planned his return with his formative coach, Jaiveer Chaudhary and longtime physio Ishaan Marwaha as part of his team.
Neeraj said his focus would be to test his body and see how he feels on his return. He said his team waited until the last session to decide whether to enter Doha. If everything goes well, and if he is able to throw beyond 82m, Neeraj will look forward to competing at the CWG, followed by the Asian Games. He looked keen and excited to take part in both major events and that itself was a positive sign.
“This is my first competition of the season so I will try my best. I feel very good, fit… but let’s see how it goes tomorrow,” he said. Chopra said competing in the World Championships with an injury was not a good decision in hindsight.
“It’s always good to make a comeback in competitions, especially if it is in Doha. I had some injury last year before the Tokyo World Championships. We worked a lot and I competed, but I don’t think it was a good decision to compete in Tokyo because I knew I had a problem but it was the last competition of the year, so I thought of (participating),” Chopra said during the official press conference of the Doha Diamond League.
Chopra has been the world’s most consistent javelin thrower for a long time and he hints his body has taken a toll. Two Olympic medals and two World Championships medals have come along the way.
“In athlete’s life there is one injury or the other. We try to save one and another happens. I had an injury in my ankle, then somewhere in my shoulder. I sat together with my team, my physio and we worked on every part of my body and I just started throwing one-and-a-half months ago. I asked the organisers (Doha DL) if I could let them know (about my availability) in a short period like a week, and they said okay. So we decided to compete here after our last session. It has always been my favourite place to open,” he said.
The Doha field will be strong led by Sri Lanka’s Rumesh Pathirage, the current world leader who threw a massive 92.62m at the Rome Diamond League. There is reigning world champion Keshorn Walcott, former world champions Anderson Peters and Kenya’s Julius Yego. Olympic champion Arshad Nadeem of Pakistan has withdrawn. All of them are expected to be part of the Commonwealth Games, where Chopra wants to compete. AFI has selected Chopra subject to his clearing the selection mark of 82.61m.
“CWG and Asian are part of my plans. CWG will be no less than the Olympics or World Championships this time. There will be so many throwers with 90m,” Chopra said, naming them. “It will be a really tough competition.”
Chopra said he is not working on anything specific but has gone back to his technique from his starting years. “I work with an Indian coach, who was my senior when I started javelin. He knows everything about me from the last 15-16 years. We are not working on anything specific but on my natural technique that I originally had. I have a good team around me.”
