Javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra.
| Picture Credit score: Okay.R. Deepak
Compelled into a brief break to fix a niggle, Olympic and world champion javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra will return to aggressive motion on the Paavo Nurmi Video games in Turku on June 18 towards a stellar discipline, hoping to proceed his build-up to Paris Video games with renewed vigour.
The 26-year-old famous person, the lone Indian within the discipline, might be up towards German teenaged sensation Max Dehning, who’s the youngest member of the coveted 90m membership, which Chopra is aspiring to enter.
The 19-year-old is being seen as a serious competitors for Chopra when he defends his Tokyo Video games gold medal in Paris.
Native favorite Oliver Helander, who had crushed the Indian within the 2022 version of the one-day competitors, may also be there.
The Indian received a silver medal in 2022 with a throw of 89.30m, which was a private greatest at the moment. Chopra improved that mark to 89.94m on the Stockholm leg of the Diamond League in the identical yr.
Two-time world champion Anderson Peters of Grenada and 2012 Olympic champion Keshorn Walcott of Trinidad and Tobago are in fray as properly right here.
Chopra had withdrawn from final month’s Ostrava Golden Spike as a precautionary measure after he “felt one thing in my adductor (group of muscular tissues positioned on interior thighs)” He started his season on the Doha Diamond League in Could, the place he completed second along with his ultimate throw of 88.36m, the ninth greatest mark of his profession.
Jakub Vadlejch, who beat Chopra within the Doha Daimond League won’t be competing right here.
Chopra additionally participated on the Nationwide Federation Cup Senior Athletics Championships in Bhubaneswar, the place he secured the gold medal with an underwhelming effort of 82.27m.
After the Paavo Nurmi Video games, Chopra will subsequent be seen in motion on the Paris Diamond League on July 7.
He has opted out of the Nationwide Inter-State Athletics in Panchkula to be held from June 27 to keep away from a busy schedule forward of the Olympics.
“Additional competitors schedule might be determined later in keeping with state of affairs and my physique. In any other case, I’ll go to Paris from there (after competing in Turku),” Chopra had acknowledged after the Federation Cup.