“Last two-three years have not been so good…”: Neeraj Chopra after Paris Olympics silver win

Paris [France], August 9 (ANI): Following his Paris Olympics silver medal win, Olympic and World Championships gold medalist Neeraj Chopra expressed dissatisfaction with his performance and revealed that the last two to three years were not good for him in terms of fitness.

Chopra fell short of retaining his gold medal in the men’s javelin throw at the ongoing marquee event securing silver with a best throw of 89.45 meters. He later pointed to his flawed technique at the runway.

Speaking after the event as quoted by Olympics.com, Neeraj said, “It was a good throw but I am not that happy with my performance today. My technique and runway was not that good. (I managed) only one throw, the rest I fouled.”

“(For my) second throw I believed in myself to think I can also throw that far. But in javelin, if your run is not so good, you cannot throw very far,” added Neeraj.

The Indian ace javelin thrower, who also is the current Asian Games champion, said that injuries leading upto his title defence in Paris made some difference and he will have to work on being injury-free and on his technique.

“The last two or three years were not so good for me. I am always injured. I really tried hard, but I have to work on my injury (staying injury-free) and technique,” the 26-year-old added.

Neeraj also said in an earlier interview that adductor issues acted as a hindrance to him over the past few years and he intends to consult the doctors after the Olympics.

“In training, I am not doing a lot of throws because of my groin (injury). But I will work hard in future,” he revealed.

Neeraj signed by congratulating his arch-rival and friend Arshad Naseem, who achieved Pakistan’s first historic medal since 1992 and the country’s first-ever individual gold medal.

“Today’s competition was really great. Arshad Nadeem threw really well. Congratulations to him and his country,” he said.

Nadeem won gold with a throw of 92.97 meters, setting a new Olympic record and surpassing Denmark’s Andreas Thorkildsen’s mark from Beijing 2008. Grenada’s Anderson Peters secured bronze with a throw of 88.54 meters.

Earlier, Chopra had achieved a throw of 89.34 meters in the Group B qualification round, his second-best all-time throw. Despite a competitive rivalry with Nadeem, where Chopra led 9-0 in their head-to-head matchups, Nadeem’s throw of 90.18 meters at the 2022 Commonwealth Games exceeded Chopra’s top effort.

Grenada’s Anderson Peters secured the bronze with an 88.54 meters throw.