New Delhi: The World Athletics, the forum that overlooks various athletic events around the world has mentioned India's Neeraj Chopra as a medal prospect in Tokyo Olympics to watch out for.
Neeraj Chopra represents India in the javelin throw and has previously held the world record for U-20 Javelin throw. World Athletics is compiling a list of 100 athletes to watch out for from various sports. They have included Chopra in the top 10 athletes in Long Throws.
The list includes Maria Andrejczyk of Poland, Lauren Bruce of Thailand, Neeraj Chopra of India, Pawel Fajdek of Poland, Anderson Peters of Grenada, DeAnna Prince of the USA, Roza Rodriguez of Venezuela, Barbora Spotakova of Czech Republic, Johannes Vetter of Germany, and Rudy Winkler of the USA.
While mentioning Neeraj Chopra, the World Athletics wrote: "Five years ago Chopra had a breakthrough performance to win the world U20 title, setting a world U20 record of 86.48m at the age of 18. That came too late for him to qualify for the Olympic Games in Rio but he will now head to Tokyo looking to make history for his nation. Only one athlete – Norman Pritchard – has ever won Olympic athletics medals for India, back in 1900, and Chopra will aim to emulate that, with an eye on becoming the nation’s first ever gold medallist.
The 2018 Commonwealth and Asian Games champion missed 2019 due to injury but threw 87.86m during his one competition in 2020 and then improved his own Indian record to 88.07m earlier this year. “I hope to continue competing for my country,” he said in 2018, “and making my country proud.”