Indian Grand Prix 2021 | Neeraj Chopra battles wind to shatter his national record at Indian Grand Prix
Indian javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra shattered his national record to script a new one with a throw of 88.07m during the third Indian Grand Prix. One of India’s brightest medal prospects, the athlete has already qualified for the 2021 Tokyo Olympics last year during an event in South Africa
Neeraj Chopra stormed into the limelight after claiming the previous national record 88.06m en-route to his Gold medal win during the 2018 Asian Games. The 24-year is regarded as one of the brightest medal prospects in the 2021 Tokyo Games, but was mainly out of action in the past year or so, down with an injury, followed the Covid-19 pandemic situation.
It was after a long time that Neeraj was back in action during the third Indian Grand Prix, in Patiala, where he shattered his national record to script a new one with a throw of 88.07m. The athlete started the tournament with a throw of 83.03m before having two foul throws. Following the fourth throw of 83.36m, he managed to strike his best-ever mark.
"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. On the world level I would need to perform even better as the current standard in the world is quite high," said Neeraj Chopra, after creating the new national record.
Chopra qualified for the Tokyo Games last year during an event in South Africa, with the Olympic cut-off mark being 85m. That was incidentally the last competition Neeraj featured in before the ongoing Indian Grand Prix.