A World Championships gold is the only medal missing in Neeraj Chopra’s decorated cabinet and the superstar Indian javelin thrower will fancy his chances as no clear-cut favourite has emerged ahead of the showpiece event beginning here on Saturday.
The 25-year-old has won gold medals at the Olympics (Tokyo in 2021), Asian Games (2018) and Commonwealth Games (2018), besides becoming the Diamond League champion last year. Neeraj won a silver in the 2022 World Championships in the US and he would be one of the gold medal contenders this time.
Though he senses that he is closer to the elusive ‘90m mark’, Neeraj, returning from an injury layoff, is not entering the meet with any specific target.
“Definitely, I’m close (to the 90m mark). I just need one perfect day with favourable weather conditions and I am confident I’ll be able to achieve the throw,” Neeraj said.
“I’m not carrying a specific throwing distance or medal target in my mind, but it’s important that when I compete there (World Championships), I don’t want to have any fear of injury or anything else on my mind,” he added.
Going by the current form of the top javelin throwers, there is no clear-cut favourite for the August 27 final. The qualification round will be held two days earlier.
Czech Republic’s Jakub Vadlejch, who won silver behind Neeraj in Tokyo, Germany’s Julian Weber and defending champion Anderson Peters, would be among the gold medal contenders besides the Indian.
Neeraj competed in only two top-class competitions this season, winning gold in both of them — the Doha and Lausanne Diamond League meets. With nearly two months of rest and training, Neeraj said he’s ready for the big event.
“Competing and being consistent at the highest level against the world’s best athletes is definitely challenging. I want to give it my best, and if that happens, I will come back better than before,” he said.
DP Manu and Kishore Jena are the other two Indians in the fray in men’s javelin throw. Jena’s visa was cancelled by the Hungarian embassy in New Delhi on Thursday but he got clearance on Friday.
In other events featuring Indians, a medal from men’s long jump cannot be ruled out altogether as Jeswin Aldrin (8.42m) and Murali Sreeshankar (8.41m) lead the world list this season.
With inputs from PTI