Tokyo Olympics gold medalist Neeraj Chopra said he wasn’t too focused on the performance of his competitors in the men’s javelin final on Aug. 7 and was only concerned about his own throws.
Neeraj Chopra became India’s first Olympic athletics champion on Saturday and only the second in the country to win the main prize in an individual competition at the Games after Abhinav Bindra (Beijing 2008 Games).
Johannes Vetter was Neeraj Chopra’s biggest rival at the event and was considered a hot favorite to win the gold medal after throwing over 90 up to 7 times in 2021.
But in Tokyo, Vetter struggled to consistently reach the 85-meter mark, let alone achieve his 8th 90-plus throw of the year. In one of the biggest surprises of the games, Vetter failed with a personal best of 97.76 m in the top 8 of the 12-man final on Saturday.
Speaking to India Today about Johannes Vetter, 23-year-old Neeraj said that the javelin thrower was not at his best in the final and even his body language was not looking good.
“Vetter is the best thrower and has shown very good performances this year. But that day his body language was bad, he was not in his best form.
“But I just focused on my throw, even if it had done well, I would not have put any pressure on it. Maybe I would have even made a bigger throw if it had done its best,” Neeraj told India Today Rajdeep Sardesai.
Johannes Vetter failed to make it into the top 8 of the men’s 12-man javelin final at the Tokyo Olympics (Reuters Photo)
Regarding his own performance, Neeraj said he looked calm on the outside but wasn’t as relaxed on the inside during the finale.
Neeraj Chopra’s best performance came in the second attempt, when he secured the gold medal with a throw of 87.58 m. Vetter, on the other hand, only managed a best throw of 82.52 m.
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“I looked relaxed, but the reality was a lot was going through my head and I was trying to concentrate. My body felt very good that day and I expected to be fine.
“So I wasn’t worried about getting a good shot, I was expecting to get close to my personal best or better,” added Neeraj.
India ended its best Olympic campaign to date with 7 medals – 1 gold, 2 silver, 4 bronze – in Tokyo.
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