After Olympic gold, Neeraj Chopra eyes World Championships title next year
Neeraj Chopra couldn’t believe what he had done. A medal was never in question but the gold medal that he could feel safely nestled in his pocket was as unexpected a feeling as there could be. So much so that Chopra would absent-mindedly pull his medal out and take a look at it, just to reassure himself that he indeed did do the impossible. He had indeed won a gold medal in javelin over a much-fancied field of competitors.
The World Championships was to be held this year in Eugene, Oregon, in the US but was pushed to 2022 after the 2020 Tokyo Olympics was postponed by one year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It will now be held from July 15-24, 2022.
"I have already won gold in Asian Games and Commonwealth Games and now an Olympic gold. So my next target is winning gold in World Championships," Chopra said during a press conference arranged by the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) to felicitate him.
The current Commonwealth Games, Asian Games, and Olympic champion has now got his eyes set on the World Championship. Sitting on the dais with Anju Bobby George, India’s lone athletics world champion medallist and the current AFI vice president. Chopra’s determination to not be just a single Olympic medallist came to the fore.
“World Championships is a big competition and sometimes tougher than the Olympics. I am not going to be content with this Olympic gold and sit on this laurel. I would like to do even better and win gold again in Asian Games, CWG and again in Olympics. That is the medal which is with Anju madam and I want to win it,” said the Haryana-native.
While Chopra was always a favorite to win a medal at the Olympics this year, it was Vetter who was a lock for the gold medal. The German has amassed 90m+ throws across the world and the Olympics and its fast track was the slip-up that the 28-year-old never expected. Whether a repeat business happens when the World Championships take place next year in the USA is a tough ask. But Chopra himself has his own goals to achieve, one of which is to breach the 90m mark.
