With 90m monkey off his back, Neeraj Chopra says aiming to throw farther now

Neeraj Chopra aims to surpass 90m mark in javelin throw after achieving it, with the help of coach Zelezny.

Relieved, happy but a touch disappointed too, Indian javelin throw star Neeraj Chopra said now that he is done breaching the 90m mark, he would be striving to go farther as his body is more or less free of the niggles that plagued him in the past few years.

The 27-year-old two-time Olympic-medallist sent his spear to 90.23m in the Diamond League season-opener here on Friday but finished second overall after Germany’s Julian Weber took the top spot with a 91.06m effort in his final throw.

“I am very happy with the 90m mark but it’s a little bit of a bittersweet experience actually. But never mind, I and my coach [the legendary Jan Zelezny] are still working on some aspects of my throw.

“We started working together only in February this year. I am still learning things,” Chopra said after the event.

Zelezny, who holds the world record for the longest throw (98.48m), doesn’t normally attend Diamond Leagues but the Czech came with Chopra last night because he felt “today is the day to achieve 90m”. “I was always feeling something in my groin in the last few years. I did not give my best because of that. This year I feel much better, we will also work on some aspects and so I believe I can throw more than 90m in the upcoming events this year till the World Championships,” Chopra said.

The Haryana-lad will enter the September 13 to 21 world championship in Tokyo as the defending gold-medallist in his event. The throw here would do a world of good to his confidence.

It was his third attempt of the night and one that made him only the third Asian and 25th overall to cross the coveted mark, that was eluding him for the last five years.