Paris [France], August 9 : Following his silver medal win at the ongoing Paris Olympics, India's Olympic and World Championships gold medalist Neeraj Chopra said that he has been facing a groin injury that restricts his running.
Chopra fell short of retaining his gold medal in the men's javelin throw at the Paris Olympics on Thursday, securing silver with a best throw of 89.45 meters. Chopra's best throw came on his second attempt, but he struggled with four consecutive foul throws, which prevented him from winning gold.
Speaking to JioCinema, Chopra said, "If we talk about my body, I have been forcing my throws because my groin injury has been bothering me. It restricts my running and creates issues while taking the cross-step. I believed in myself to make that throw because I know more is left to come. I have not been able to reach my peak over the last few years, but I will work harder, keep myself fit, and make better throws in the future."
Arshad Nadeem of Pakistan won gold with a throw of 92.97 meters, setting a new Olympic record and surpassing Denmark's Andreas Thorkildsen's mark from Beijing 2008. Grenada's Anderson Peters secured bronze with a throw of 88.54 meters.
Earlier, Chopra had achieved a throw of 89.34 meters in the Group B qualification round, his second-best all-time throw. Despite a competitive rivalry with Nadeem, where Chopra led 9-0 in their head-to-head matchups, Nadeem's throw of 90.18 meters at the 2022 Commonwealth Games exceeded Chopra's top effort.
Grenada's Anderson Peters secured the bronze with an 88.54 meters throw.
Following the failure to defend his gold medal, Neeraj expressed dissatisfaction with his performance and revealed that the last two to three years were not good for him in terms of fitness.
Speaking after the event as quoted by Olympics.com, Neeraj said, "It was a good throw but I am not that happy with my performance today. My technique and runway was not that good. (I managed) only one throw, the rest I fouled."
"(For my) second throw I believed in myself to think I can also throw that far. But in javelin, if your run is not so good, you cannot throw very far," added Neeraj.
The Indian ace javelin thrower, who also is the current Asian Games champion, said that injuries leading upto his title defence in Paris made some difference and he will have to work on being injury-free and on his technique.
"The last two or three years were not so good for me. I am always injured. I really tried hard, but I have to work on my injury (staying injury-free) and technique," the 26-year-old added.
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