India's 2020 Tokyo Olympics Gold medallist Neeraj Chopra is all set to begin his season with the 2023 Doha Diamond League meet on Friday (May 5). Chopra, who has already made it clear how he wants to breach the hallowed 90m mark, and a day before his first competition of the year he once again reiterated the same.
At the pre-competition press conference, Chopra without saying it directly pointed out that Doha was famous 90m throws. It is interesting to note that India's golden boy's personal best happens to be 89.94m.
“Doha is famous for 90m throws and hopefully tomorrow will be a great result for all,” Chopra said at the press conference. All eyes will be on Chopra who has been India's best, having achieved several records already in his career so far.
Other than bagging India's first medal at the track and field events in the Olympic games, his career includes a gold at the 2016 South Asian Games which is where he had clocked a then national record of 82.23 meters. This was followed by a gold medal at the 2017 Athletics Championships in Bhubaneswar. Here again, a Championship record was set with his best throw of 85.23 meters.
At the Commonwealth Games in 2018 which was organised at Gold Coast in Australia, he bagged yet another gold medal with a throw of 86.47 metres. Later in the same year, he bagged the silver medal at the Asian Games in Jakarta in Indonesia.
Then of course came the Olympic game in 2021 which was delayed by a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In a country starved of gold medals and having had no medal in athletics ever, Chopra's javelin few a record 87.58 metres to give a nation of a billion plus their first medal in the discipline and that too the best one on offer.