With the CWG and the Asian Games in sight, Neeraj returns to Doha and throws his own style

The first thing Neeraj Chopra wants people to know, before the rants and the makeover and the new faces in his corner, is that he feels fit. It is the answer that Indian sport has been waiting nine months for, and he is giving it without ceremony.

He spent the build-up to this return from Doha at Magglingen, Switzerland’s Olympic training base above Biel, working in conditions as far removed from the roar of the championship arena as a javelin throw would allow. It was at the same place, the Suhaim bin Hamad Stadium, that he broke the 90-meter barrier for the first time in his career last year with a throw of 90.23 meters.

“It’s amazing to be back in the competitive season, especially in Doha,” he said, before almost casually admitting that the occasion still brings nerves.

“I’m a little nervous to speak in front of so many people after a long time.

He liked Magglingen precisely because of what he denied.

“It’s in the mountains, it’s very quiet and you can focus on training and technique,” he said.

There’s something telling about an athlete of his stature who seeks silence rather than noise, and it creates a contrast at the heart of his comeback: a year ago, the noise around him, the pressure of a season that had to end somewhere, pushed him onto a Tokyo runway he shouldn’t have walked.

This confession, when it comes, is more direct than defensive.

“Last year before the World Championships in Tokyo I had some injury problems. I think it was not a good decision to race there because I already knew I had some problems. But since it was the last competition of the year, I wanted to race there.”

The back injury struck 12 days before Tokyo, according to his own coach’s account at the time Chopra finished eighth with a season-worst 84.03mending a run of 26 consecutive top two finishes. A body that was once compromised simply did not heal itself.

“As athletes, if we try to manage one injury, we end up getting another one,” he said.

“After a back injury during the World Cup, I had another in my ankle and then another in my shoulder.

What followed was not a quick fix, but a recalibration: sitting down with his team and his physical therapist, the decision to stop chasing fitness and start rebuilding it, and the first pitch just a month and a half before this week’s press conference. He told organizers from Doha that he could only confirm a week.

“Then I said yes. It’s my favorite place to start the season.”

BACK TO YOUR TECHNIQUE

However, the most noticeable shift is in his corner rather than on the runway. Chopra parted ways with Jan Železný, the Czech giant under whom he broke the 90-meter mark, after Tokyo, and both men described it as amicable and mutual. Chopra does not dispute this.

“Working with Jan opened my eyes to so many new ideas,” he said of the work.

But the World Cup left him wanting something else.

“After the World Cup, I said to myself that I have to work more with my own ideas.”

This quest has taken him back to where he started, now training under Jaiveer Singh Chaudhary, to whom he is known simply as Jai, the man who first put a spear in his hand at Panipat.

“I am working with the Indian coach now. He is my senior. I started with him when I started javelin, so he knows my story from the last 15 or 16 years.”

Working with Chaudhary is not a technical review.

“We’re not working on anything specific or anything too deep. I’m working on my natural technique,” he said of what he calls a throw that “originally came naturally” before a decade of skilled hands reshaped it. His longtime physical therapist remains constant through it all. “He’s been there for the last eight or nine years. I’ve got a good team now. I’m very happy.”

WHY NEERAJ DOESN’T FOLLOW THE HEADLINES OF HIS 90M THROW

During months of rehabilitation, the temptation to relive that night in Doha, the throw that eventually took him over 90 meters, must have been obvious. Chopra objected to this.

He was almost coy when asked how many times he had watched it. “I haven’t watched it much,” he said before explaining his habit, which has nothing to do with this season and everything to do with watching himself compete.

“I really like my qualifying throws from the Olympics and the World Championships because I’m relaxed at that time. Whenever I compete in the finals of a big competition, I try really hard and I’m very aggressive, and then I forget about the technique.”

“I don’t like to look at my throws from the final. The throws in the qualifiers are technically better.”

COMMONWEALTH GAMES AS TOUGH AS THE OLYMPICS

Ahead of us are the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow and the Asian Games in Aichi-Nagoya, both targeted, both circling as true tests of the season once the rhythm of the Diamond League settles. Of the two, it’s the Commonwealth field that has brought it most to life, not because of the occasion, but because of who will be standing on the runway. “Even Grenada’s Anderson Peters and Keshorn Walcott will be there. (Julius) Yego will be there. They’ve all thrown over 90 metres. The Commonwealth Games will be no less competitive than the Olympics or the World Cup.”

This assessment can hardly be overstated: Rumesh Pathirage from Sri Lanka arrives in Doha world leader after throwing 92.62 m at the Rome Diamond Leaguethe second-best mark by an Asian thrower in history, while Pakistan’s Arshad Nadeem holds the Olympic record of 92.97m and Kenya’s Julius Yego rounds out a field thick with 90m throwers.

In Pathirage specifically, the heat is unguarded. “He’s a really good guy and a good friend of mine. I’m happy for him. It’s really big what he’s achieved for Sri Lanka.”

Finally, when asked if Doha will see another 90m throw, Chopra resists making an easy promise. “It’s my first competition of the season. I’ll try my best. I feel really good and I’m really fit. We’ll see.”

It’s a cautious answer rather than a bold one, but after the year she’s had, Chopra’s caution sounds like confidence.

– The end

Issued by:

Akshay Ramesh

Published on:

18 Jun 2026 16:27 IST