Tokyo Olympics: Neeraj Chopra speaks about Javelin throw final, says 'need to improve'

India's javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra on Wednesday sent a strong statement to his fellow challengers by automatically qualifying for the final round of the Javelin throw event at the Tokyo Olympics. Making his Olympic debut, Chopra qualified for the final in some style by throwing a distance of 86.65m in his very first attempt to put himself in the top spot of the Group A qualification. Following his brilliant effort, he said  "I am at my first Olympic Games, and I feel very good. In the warm-up, my performance wasn't so good, but then (in the qualifying round) my first throw had a good angle, and was a perfect throw." 

Tokyo Olympics: Neeraj Chopra aims for a perfect show in the finals 

Chopra's qualification for the finals will go down as one of the best performances by an Indian athlete in the Olympics. He finished ahead of gold-medal favourite and 2017 world champion Johannes Vetter of Germany.  He is considered as the favourite to win India's maiden track-and-field medal at the Olympic Games but the 23-year-old said that the fight for the medal will be a totally different game altogether.  He said "It will be a different feeling (in the finals) since it is my first time in the Olympics. Physically we (all) train hard and are ready, but I also need to prepare mentally. I will need to focus on the throw, and try to repeat this (performance) with a higher score."

Speaking about his performance ahead of the Tokyo Olympics Chopra said "Last year was very difficult because we were ready for the Olympics, and due to coronavirus everything was closed. We felt a little sad, but after we started training regularly. We need to train every day, so it was difficult but when Japan said they could do the Olympics, we prepared our mind and trained very hard."

This was Chopra's seventh-best throw and third-best of the season 2021. His earlier six best throws are 88.07m (March 2021; Indian GP-3), 88.06m (2018, Asian Games), 87.87m (January 2020; ACNW Meeting in South Africa), 87.80m (March 2021; Federation Cup), 87.43m (May 2018, Doha Diamond League) and 86.79 (June 2021; Kuortane Games).

(With PTI inputs)