Olympic countdown: Chopra carrying the aspirations of a billion

By B Shrikant

Mumbai, July 14 (SocialNews.XYZ) During an interaction with India's Tokyo-bound contingent on Tuesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi inquired with javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra about the injury he suffered in 2019, which kept him out of action for eight months. He advised the 23-year-old not to get bogged down by the burden of expectations and rather try and produce his best effort in Tokyo.

It is a measure of the huge expectations for a medal from Chopra that the Prime Ministry inquired about his injury and how the javelin thrower has kept himself motivated to make a successful comeback, qualify for the Olympics and set a national record despite losing months to injury and the Covid-19 pandemic.

Chopra had to miss many important tournaments as he could not travel due to Covid-19 restrictions.

Indeed, Chopra has gone through a lot in the last couple of years -- especially in 2019, as he was out of action for eight months following an elbow surgery to remove bone fragments. The injury had struck just when the 23-year-old naib subedar in the Indian Army had established himself among the top javelin throwers in the world and was on the verge of crossing the 90-metre mark.

Born in Khandra village in Panipat district of Haryana, Chopra first came into limelight when he won gold in the 2016 South Asian Games in Guwahati, equalling the national record with a throw of 82.23.

Just 19-years at that time, Chopra set a junior world record on way to winning gold in the World U-20 Championships in Bydgoszcz, Poland.

However, he could not qualify for the 2016 Rio Olympics because his efforts came after the qualifying period had ended.

He hurled the spear to a season-best distance of 86.47 metres to win gold at the 2018 Commonwealth Games. A few months later, he went on to win gold at the Asian Games in Jakarta, rewriting his own national record.

Chopra, who has been coached by German bio-mechanics expert Klaus Bartonietz, Gary Calvert, and Werner Daniels in the past and is currently working with German former world record holder Ume Hohn, comes from a farming family.

The eldest son in the joint family which had no connection with athletics, young Neeraj took to the sport while watching his friends throw the javelin on a visit to the stadium near his house. He did well and continued with the sport and today has reached the stage where he carries the aspirations of more than a billion citizens of the country at the world's biggest stage.

Source: IANS