Neeraj Chopra Feels All Prepped Up for Doha Diamond League and Budapest World Championships

Neeraj Chopra feels much better fitness and strength-wise and is prepared to take on the Doha Diamond League as well as the Budapest World Championships.

Written by: Arjita Gupta

Edited by: Krutarth Ghosalkar

Last Updated: 2023-04-17 08:47:37

Because of the extended celebration of his gold win in August 2021 in the Javelin throw, he missed out on Tokyo Olympics last year. And Neeraj could return to competition only in June 2022 for Paavo Nurmi Games. And currently, he is in much better shape with solid training as Neeraj trained at several bases in three countries as well worked for six months on techniques and other pointers after his title in Diamond League final in September. He is prepared for the next month’s Doha Diamond League. Previously, when he started training last year, he did not feel quite strongly about the May 5, Doha competitions in terms of strength and fitness.

But now that his training is going well, he feels fitter mentally and physically, and with the competition coming close, he is having a good feeling about the competition. The first stop will be Doha. The season will be a long one with World Championships happening in Budapest till August and in Eugene where Diamond League final will go on till September along with Asian Games already postponed and happening at Hangzhou from September to October. Since last year, Neeraj is a better shape and has learned several lessons.

He won silver for the best throw of 88.13m in his fourth attempt at the 2022 Eugene World. But here he felt that his groin got overstretched in the spirit. Barely a month later, the injury caused him not able to take part in the Commonwealth Games. He was in a good amount of pain and could not stop. But right now the focus is to have a healthy season ahead that is free of injuries. Neeraj Chopra has brought in a solid foundation this season as he was coached by Germany’s Klaus Bartonietz and helped by physio Ishaan Marwaha.

All of them have put in a lot of hard work over the last few months right from going to Loughborough University in the UK and earlier this year, moving to Potchefstroom and then this month, at Gloria Sports Arena in Antalya, Turkey. In South Africa, Neeraj worked on his throwing strength and added minor technical tweaks, and while in the UK, he worked on building stamina with the help of Powerbase gym and other facilities at Loughborough University. He confirmed the same that they tried to improve his technique and throwing strength as well as increase the strength of his throwing muscles.

These activities and training have made the young athlete confident, and his consistent performance in the 2022 season is the reason for his belief. He also set a record nationally at Stockholm with 89.94m. He wants to break the 90m mark and go the magical distance, especially this season. Neeraj said that he is not over-confident despite last year when he was too close to the competition. He feels good about the training going well and strongly believes that this time around the 90m will happen for him.

He does not follow what his competitors do except for their social media field. In this year’s competition, Neeraj will join Jakub Vadlejch (90.88), Doha Anderson Peters (PB: 93.07m), Julius Yego (92.72), and Keshorn Walcott (90.16). He is looking forward to sportsmanship and stated that greater things will ensue from Indian athletics. He also followed on Saturday at the Indian Grand Prix in Bengaluru and was happy that DP Manu clinched the game with a lead of 84.33m, just crossing over to 81.81m by Rohit Yadav.

Neeraj was glad about the performances, along with that of CWG triple jump champion Eldhose Paul and Shaili Singh, the long jumper. He was quite excited about things shaping up for Indian athletes.