Neeraj Chopra's Silver and Struggle: Olympian Battles Groin Injury Amid Performance Fallout

Neeraj Chopra, India's Olympic gold medalist, reveals a groin injury hampered his performance at the Paris Olympics, leading to a silver medal in men's javelin throw. Despite securing a throw of 89.45 meters, Chopra fell short of reclaiming gold. Pakistan's Arshad Nadeem clinched the gold with a record-breaking throw.

Following his silver medal win at the ongoing Paris Olympics, India's Olympic and World Championships gold medalist Neeraj Chopra revealed he has been grappling with a groin injury that hampers his running. Chopra narrowly missed retaining his gold medal in the men's javelin throw on Thursday, securing silver with a best throw of 89.45 meters. His peak throw came on his second attempt, but four consecutive foul throws marred his chances of winning gold.

Chopra, in an interview with JioCinema, shared, '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.' Pakistan's Arshad Nadeem 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 an impressive throw of 89.34 meters in the Group B qualification round, marking his second-best all-time throw. Despite a fierce rivalry with Nadeem, Chopra led 9-0 in their head-to-head matchups, but Nadeem's throw of 90.18 meters at the 2022 Commonwealth Games exceeded Chopra's top effort. Grenada's Anderson Peters took home the bronze with an 88.54 meters throw.

After failing to defend his gold medal, Neeraj expressed dissatisfaction with his performance, revealing that the last two to three years had not been favorable for his fitness. Speaking post-event as quoted by Olympics.com, Neeraj stated, 'It was a good throw but I am not that happy with my performance today. My technique and runway were 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 is also the current Asian Games champion, mentioned that injuries leading up to his title defense in Paris had a significant impact and he aims to work on staying injury-free and improving 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 concluded. (ANI)

(With inputs from agencies.)