Relax? Worlds on Neeraj Chopra’s mind

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, August 10

Many of the Indian athletes returning from the Tokyo Games are looking forward to time away from the sport. However, Neeraj Chopra has already set his mind on his next big target.

Amoj Jacob, who was part of the 4x400m men’s team that broke the Asian record in Tokyo, wants to take a break of over a month and go on a holiday with friends. Discus thrower Kamalpreet Kaur is looking forward to spending time with family and relatives.

Chopra, though, said that he is not going to rest on his laurels. He wants a World Championships medal. “We only have one World Championships medal won by Anju ma’am (Anju Bobby George),” Chopra said during a felicitation event held by the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) on Tuesday.

“World Championships is sometimes a tougher competition than even the Olympics. I will not be content with this medal now. I have won now and will like to win again,” Neeraj said.

The World Championships, which were to be held this year in Eugene, USA, were rescheduled for July 2022.

“I want to win the Commonwealth Games and Asian Games medals as well. I am not going to sit back and be happy with this medal now,” he added.

Amoj said Chopra’s gold “has given us new desire”.

AFI announces ‘Neeraj Day’

AFI announced that it will hold javelin competitions on August 7 every year to commemorate Chopra’s gold medal feat. The plan will also be enforced at district level. “The federation will provide the javelins for these meets,” announced Lalit Bhanot, chairman of AFI’s planning committee.

Hohn on his way out?

India’s javelin coach Uwe Hohn is on his way out as his contract, which run till the end of the Tokyo Olympics, is unlikely to be extended further. The 59-year-old German was appointed as chief coach in November 2017 to train Olympics champion Neeraj Chopa, Shivpal Singh and Annu Rani. It is learnt that Hohn had demanded 50 per cent hike in his salary. SAI had also appointed bio-mechanics expert Dr Klaus Bartonietz to work with Chopra. AFI said it was Chopra’s choice to leave Hohn and train with Klaus. PTI

‘We took four national flags along this time’

The chief national coach of the athletics team, Radhakrishnan Nair, had the crowd in splits when he disclosed that they “never used to carry the Indian flag to any of the Olympics as we knew there will be no big result.” Nair, though, carried four flags to the Tokyo Games. “I carried four flags this time. It came in handy when Neeraj won gold medal. Hopefully this is just the beginning,” he said. TNS