2018 Commonwealth Games: Know your CWG athlete - Neeraj Chopra

NEW DELHI: High praise has become synonymous with javelin-thrower Neeraj Chopra, at the age of 20. Former India athlete and World Championships bronze medallist Anju Bobby George termed him the most promising young Indian athlete today, while his former coach Garry Calvert termed him a “once-in-a-generation-talent". And truth be told, it is hard to argue against either of those statements.


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Chopra's showing in the last one year has escalated the youngster to the same platform, if not above, as country's elite athletes.

From the Indian athletic contingent that departed for the 2018

Commonwealth Games

to be held at Gold Coast City, in the southeast of the Australian state of Queensland from April 4-15, to sharpen their skills and acclimatise to the conditions, Chopra is expected to lead the quest for a medal.




It was only earlier this month that Chopra officially qualified for the quadrennial games after hurling a spear to a distance of 85.94m in his sixth attempt at the Federations Cup senior national athletics Championships in Patiala. Chopra had previously met the qualifying standard during the Indian GP, but the

Athletics Federation of India

had made it mandatory for athletes to match their performances at the Federation Cup.




Benefitting from his three-month off-season stint in Offenburg, Germany, Chopra would not only be looking to win a medal but also hope to better his personal best of 86.48m from 2016, which remains the junior world record. Last year, Chopra’s 85.63m effort in Patiala was his best of the season. He won the Asian Championships gold in Bhubaneswar and took part in three Diamond League series events, finishing fifth in one of them. But he disappointed at the London World Championships, failing to make it to the final round after a best effort of 82.26m.

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Chopra was in Offenberg until the first week of February and bagged silver at a competition where he hit 82.80m to finish second behind world champion Johannes Vetter of Germany. Chopra also made a strong return to the domestic competition circuit at the Indian Grand Prix where he outclassed the field to claim gold medal at the Run Adam Indian Grand Prix-1. Chopra threw a distance of 82.88m at the National Institute of Sports to finish well ahead of Vipin Kasana's 80.04m that bagged him a silver while Amit Kumar took the bronze with a 77.33m throw.

"My target this year to consistently throw above 85m mark and do better than my personal best. I feel I can do that at Gold Coast and win a medal for my country. That will be my first medal in a big multi-sporting event," Chopra had said.