‘Injury Is Fine, Next Big Target Is...’: Neeraj Unveils Next Major Goal, Vows to Return Stronger

Promising to be 100 per cent fit for new season, India's two-time Olympic medal-winning javelin throw star Neeraj Chopra on Friday said a podium finish in 2025 Tokyo World Championships is next big target on his mind going forward.

26-year-old is back in country after winding up his season with a second-place finish at Diamond League finale in Brussels.

This was after he became first Indian track-and-field athlete to claim successive Olympic medals by ding a silver in Paris to momentous gold clinched in Tokyo.

" season is over now. biggest target for next year is World Championship, and we will begin preparations for that now. Olympics are always on our minds, but we have four years for that," Neeraj told PTI Videos on sidelines of a conference on 'Mission Olympics 2036' organised at Sports University of Haryana here.

world championship is scheduled to be held from September 13 to 21 next year.

Chopra battled an ductor muscle niggle throughout year and it also affected his performance at both Olympics and DL finale, where he also competed with a fractured left hand.

He h spoken about consulting doctors at end of season to decide wher to go for a surgery to fix problem.

Asked about his fitness, Chopra played down concerns and also stated that he will look to improve his technique. Haryana -l is trained by renowned German biomechanics expert Klaus Bartonietz.

"It was an injury-plagued year but injury is fine now, I will be 100 per cent fit for new season," he asserted.

"Technical issues are also re but we will work on m. I will look to improve my technique. I do like to train in India but when competitions start, I prefer to train abro," he said.

Reflecting on India's Olympic performance, which yielded six medals but no gold this time, Chopra pointed out that country could have got more as reflected by half a dozen fourth place finishes.

"re were a lot of fourth positions. (But) this time, we h a very good performance in Paralympics and won several medals.

"In coming times, we expect strong performances in both Olympics and Paralympics," said Chopra.

Chopra has been working hard to hit 90m mark but hasn't managed so far despite coming close. In Paris Olympics , his silver-winning throw was 89.45m and he was bested by Pakistan 's Arsh Neem, who broke Games record with a 92.97m effort.

At DL finale, Chopra threw 87.86m to miss top finish by just one centimetre.