Patiala: Olympic-bound star javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra smashed his own national record Friday with a throw of 88.07m, which is also the best of the year so far. Chopra’s record-breaking throw came during the third Indian Grand Prix (IGP) meet here Friday.
Competing for the first time in more than a year after the COVID-19 pandemic wiped out the whole of 2020 calendar, Chopra hurled the spear to a distance of 88.07cm in his fifth attempt to obliterate his earlier national record of 88.06m. The earlier throw came during a gold-winning show at the 2018 Asian Games.
The 24-year-old Chopra opened the competition with an effort of 83.03m before having two foul throws. After a fourth throw of 83.36m, Chopra sent the javelin to a record distance amid loud cheers from a sizeable audience at the NIS Patiala complex here. His final throw was 82.24m.
“I was prepared and today it was windy. I used my favourite javelin which helped me. Pandemic did affect training and preparation but we managed to hold on,” said Chopra who is also the 2018 Commonwealth Games gold medallist. “At the world level I would need to perform even better as current standards are quite high,” the athlete added.
Chopra qualified for the upcoming Tokyo Olympics in January last year in an event in South Africa during his training stint in that country. That was also the last competition he had taken part before Friday.