With a best throw of 88.17m, Olympic champion Neeraj became the first Indian athlete to win a gold medal at the senior world championships. The medal completed a very special set for Chopra, who has now won every major title possible in his sport.
Besides his Olympic and world championship golds and the Diamond League title, Neeraj is also an Asian Athletics Championships (2017), Asian Games (2018) and Commonwealth Games (2018) champion.
Heading into Budapest 23, Neeraj was already the first Indian track and field athlete to win a gold medal at the Olympics (Tokyo 2020), the Diamond League title (2022) and the junior world championships (2016).
After achieving so much at such a young age, it is easy to assume that Neeraj must have been a satisfied man, but the 25-year-old is still very hungry for success.
“As they say, throwers don’t have a finish line. No matter how many medals you win, there will always be the motivation that you can throw further. To win a medal does not mean we have won everything. Many athletes have won the same medal multiple times. I will push myself to win these medals again and it will be amazing if more Indian athletes join me on the podium,” said Neeraj after winning his historic gold.
The Indian also mentioned that winning medals at Worlds is tougher than the Olympics.
“It’s a very special feeling to have won the Olympics and the World Championships. Competition-wise, the World Championships is always tougher than the Olympics. Athletes train very hard for this. I am most happy about the fact that I won today, and two more Indians were with me. I’m very happy to see how Indian athletics is growing,” he said.
Talking about the elusive 90m mark, Chopra said it will happen soon.
“This year, everything has gone well except for the groin injury. I have left it [crossing the 90m mark] to time. I have been around the 88m mark since 2018 and came closer to 90m last year, but it depends on the day, and I don’t know when the day will come. I am just waiting for the day and time. It will come soon,” he said.
“I had thought about hitting the 90m mark in between, but I now feel that it’s more important to win a medal. There were 90m throwers here and I have been competing against them regularly and I am winning [without needing to hit the 90m mark]. I consider consistency very important, and I feel that gives me confidence in big events,” he added.
Considering Neeraj has won everything there is to win — the Olympics, World Championships, Asian Games, Commonwealth Games and Diamond League, he was asked if he was the GOAT in Indian athletics.
“I will never say that about myself. Everyone said only the World Championships medal was left for me to win, but I feel there’s still more for me to improve on and that I need to throw better. I will not say this about myself, I have a lot more to achieve and I will focus on that,” said Neeraj.
However, Athletics Federation of India (AFI) president Adille Sumariwalla had no doubts.
“He is someone who has won the World Championships, Olympics, Commonwealth Games, Asian Games and the Diamond League…it’s a no-brainer,” said Sumariwalla.
Apart from Neeraj, the other two Indian athletes in the 12-man javelin throw finals at Budapest also logged impressive results. Kishore Jena finished fifth with a personal best haul of 84.77m while DP Manu was sixth with 84.14m.
