Neeraj Chopra returns with a new national record and a place in the world top five for 2022

Ten months after winning gold at the Tokyo Olympics, Neeraj Chopra returned to action in style on Tuesday, rewriting his own men’s javelin national record with a throw of 89.30 meters at the Paavo Nurmi Games in Finland.

It was Chopra’s first competitive event since winning a historic gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics. Chopra’s record throw helped him finish second in the competition. Local event favorite Oliver Helander topped the list with a throw of 89.83 yards.

Chopra’s previous national record was 88.07m, which he set in March in Patiala last year. A few months later, on August 7, he went where no Indian athlete had gone before, becoming the country’s first athletics champion at the Olympics.

That day, he had scored a best attempt of 87.58m, which came with his second throw.

A mighty eighty-seven point five eight: Thank you, Neeraj Chopra

In his first attempt on Tuesday, Chopra started with a solid 86.92m before reaching nearly the 90m he has in sight. The 89.30 with the second attempt turned out to be the best of his career so far. After three illegal throws, he finished the day with another solid effort at 85.85m.

The event was won by Helander who threw a monstrous personal best of 89.83m. Meanwhile, reigning world champion and season leader Anderson Peters finished third with a throw of 86.60m.

AND THIS GUY?! Neeraj Chopra (@Neeraj_chopra1 ) hasn’t competed since the Tokyo Olympics, then he comes to #paavonurmigames #Turkou ET launches an NR (89.30m)! Shortest measured throw: 85.85m. Just wow! #turkulovessport #ContinentalTourGold pic.twitter.com/ieZKqVJbom

— Paavo Nurmi Games (@paavonurmigames) June 14, 2022

Chopra, who set a junior world record of 86.48m in 2016 by winning gold at the IAAF U20 World Championships, has steadily improved his best throws year on year and is not foreigner to break his own national record. The U20 gold, a milestone in his career, was also the first time he broke Rajinder Singh’s national record, having jointly held the mark of 82.23m for a while, set at the SEA Games in February 2016. He came close to that U20 world record again at the 2018 Commonwealth Games in April while winning gold. The next national record came at the Doha IAAF Diamond League, Suhaim bin Hamad Stadium, with 87.43m in May. The mark would be rewritten again in the same year as he clinched gold at the 2018 Asian Games with 88.06m.

Injuries, surgery and a pandemic meant a brief pause for Chopra’s improvement spree.

Just like 2022, he also got off to a good start in 2021, rewriting the national record at Indian Grand Prix 3 at Patiala on March 5, 2021, but this time just by a small margin, going back up to 88.07m.

And then, after a 10-month break, in view of the 2022 World Championships, Chopra approached the 90m mark with 89.30 for the latest national record.

Learn more about Chopra’s journey before the U20 gold and world record here.

While Chopra tops the men’s javelin throws charts in 2022 by Indian athletes with a new national record, another good sign for India’s javelin is that three more have cleared the 80m this season, with DP Manu and Rohit Yadav brilliant at the recent AFI rendezvous in Chennai.

In terms of best performances across the world in 2022, Chopra has found a spot in the top 10 straight away. Its 89.30 is the sixth best mark recorded so far this year. And considering only the best throws of each athlete, the Indian ranks fifth behind 2019 world champion Anderson Peters, Tokyo silver medalist Jakub Vadlejch, Paavo Nurmi Games winner Oliver Helander and German star Julian Weber.

“It was my first competition since the Tokyo Olympics and it went really well, because in the first competition itself I had my personal best shot,” Chopra said as quoted by Sports Authority. of India. “I got off to a good start here so it has definitely boosted my confidence that I can perform better and I will take the shortcomings from here and improve on them as we head into a bigger event.”

Chopra, whose exposure trips and training camps are covered by the Target Olympic Podium program, is currently training in Finland for the upcoming Kuortane Games and then the Diamond League event in Stockholm. Late last year, after a premature end to the 2021 season, Chopra began training initially at the Chula Vista Elite Athlete Training Center in the United States for three months, followed by another three months of training at Gloria Sports Arena in Antalya, Turkey this year.

Courtesy statistics World Athletics

With SAI and JSW inputs