Neeraj Chopra wins first gold medal of the season in 2022 Kuortane Games, escapes injury after nasty fall
Slippery conditions at the Kuortane Games made life difficult for all javelin throwers on Saturday, 18 June.
- India Today Web Desk
- 'New Delhi
- June 18, 2022
- UPDATED: June 18, 2022 23:57 IST
HIGHLIGHTS
- Neeraj Chopra closed in on the 90-metre mark in his last competition
- The Olympic gold-medalist is training in Finland for the Diamond League event
- Neeraj Chopra slipped during his third attempt
Olympic gold-medalist Neera Chopra won his first gold medal of the season, besting tough conditions at Kuortane Games in Finland. His throw of 86.69m in his first attempt remained unrivalled in incessant rainfall in Finland. Chopra avoided an injury in the Kuortane Games on Saturday, 18 June after slipping on the course on his third attempt. The rain affected the performance of the javelin throwers, but could not stop Chopra from leading the pack with his first attempt of 86.69m. After an intentional foul in the second attempt, Chopra went all in for his third, but ended up slipping on the wet track.
As the crowd gasped, the Indian managed to recover well and get up right away.
The 24-year-old bested rival Anderson Peters, who has made two 90m+ throws in 2022. However, the Indian has managed to beat him twice in a space of one week. Chopra broke the national record in his very first attempt after the Tokyo Olympics, landing the javelin close to 90 meters from the point of release.
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The Athletics Federation of India confirmed in a tweet that Chopra confirmed after the event that the champion was doing just fine.
"This was my first competition since the Tokyo Olympics and it went really well, as in the first competition itself, I hit my personal best throw and also won the Silver Medal. Now I am aiming for the next few events which will be bigger than this and of course, the Commonwealth Games, where I will face a lot of competition.” Neeraj said, speaking to SAI.
He then went on to add that the event gave him a confidence boost and now he aims to improve upon what he learned at the Paavo Nurmi Games.
“I got 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 upon them as we head for a bigger event,” he added.
Neeraj, who is currently training in Kuortane, Finland for the upcoming Diamond League event in Stockholm, is part of the Ministry's Target Olympic Podium Scheme (TOPS) which gives personalized support to athletes.