He may have been the poster boy for Indian athletics for the past two years, but, at 20, Neeraj Chopra knows he still has a long way to go.
The Asiad champion returned home, for the first time since that 88.06m javelin throw 15 days ago, in the wee hours of Tuesday but with two more competitions already under his belt and the realisation that there is a lot of hard work to be done.
“I threw 86m in 2016 at the World junior championships. This year I managed 88m at the Asian Games. Two metres sounds too easy, but it takes a lot of hard work. Then again, I might have managed to cross that mark at the Asiad if I had got the direction right. Now I will be working on getting 90m,it will take a slight adjustment in technique,” Chopra said during an interaction here.
His technique, in fact is his primary concern.
At the Continental Cup, as one of the favourites for a medal, Chopra missed out on advancing to the fourth round after a foul that saw him being edged out by Chao Tsung-Cheng of Chinese Taipei.
It was the third time in as many events that saw his throws being wayward despite going the distance. At the Asiad, his gold-winning throw of 88.06m landed just inside the sector.
At the Diamond League after that, he again barely survived. And Chopra admitted it was a concern.
“Something clearly went wrong, either with the technique or I have made a mistake. My throws are going a bit too much to the left. There wasn’t enough time to work on the issues after the Asiad but now there is time and we will work on it before the World Championships next year,” he explained.
With the long season almost over, Chopra will be heading home — after 11 months, he reminded — before rejoining the National camp in Patiala under Uwe Hohn.
Big target
And though his big target is the Olympics, Chopra knows there is many a slip between the cup and the lip.
“It all depends on the momentum going into that particular day in any competition. Even someone like Johannes Vetter or Thomas Rohler cannot guarantee they will manage 94 or 95m every time.
“At the London Olympics, even 84m was enough to get gold. In the Diamond League, I managed 87+ and still finished only fourth,” he said.
