New Delhi [India], October 12 : Olympic gold medalist Neeraj Chopra expressed hope that he along with fellow Indian athlete Kishore Jena could breach the desired 90-metre mark in javelin throw.
Neeraj was leagues ahead of other athletes as he defended his gold medal in the recently concluded 19th Asian Games with a throw of 88.88-metre.
The only athlete who came close to competing with Neeraj was none other than his compatriot Kishore Jena. Hailing from Odisha, Jena broke his personal best in back-to-back throws and came close to Neeraj's season-best throw of 88.88m with his 87.54m in the men's javelin throw final event.
During a felicitation ceremony organised by the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) which was also attended by Union Sports Minister Anurg Thakur, Neeraj talked about the 90m challenge and said, "I was confident with my training and I would be able to finish off the 90m question. So congratulations to all the mediapersons as you can ask the question once again. But I will be able to do it and I hope Jena and I will do it together."
Earlier this week Neeraj expressed his delight on returning to the country after defending his gold and told ANI, "It feels good to return to India after defending my Asian Games medal. We visited Gopichand Academy and met Para athletes who are going to play in the Asian Games."
He also went on to talk about being glad to see youngsters showing interest in the javelin after watching him perform well in the world's biggest tournaments.
"Well, I can only speak about javelin on whether my achievements are going to inspire many more to take up athletics. Yes, I am glad to say that a lot of boys and girls are showing great interest in javelin after my feats," Neeraj said in a press conference.
Neeraj visited Hyderabad for the first time since 2015 and went on to talk about his journey which began in this state.
"Yes, it has been a very tough journey and interestingly the first thoughts of how it would be to make it to the Olympics first crossed my thoughts here in this city in 2015 when I competed in the Junior Fed Cup meet and won a gold," he said.
"Honestly, to reach this level I had to put in a lot of effort, stay focussed and overcome a lot of hardship like travelling in trains in unreserved compartments and sharing accommodation with many other fellow athletes," Chopra added.
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