Neeraj Chopra
Credit: PTI Photo
New Delhi: Legendary para-athlete Devendra Jhajharia feels it's a matter of time for star javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra to breach the elusive 90m mark and predicted that he can throw 93m in one or two years.
Chopra won a silver medal in the Paris Olympics with a throw of 89.45m earlier this month while the gold went to Pakistan's Arshad Nadeem, who stunned the javelin world with an Olympic record effort of 92.97m.
On Thursday, Chopra again finished second in the Lausanne Diamond League with a last round throw of 89.49m, behind two-time world champion Anderson Peters of Grenada, who produced a monster throw of 90.61m. Jhajharia, himself a para-javelin throw legend with double Paralympics gold in F46 category, said when Chopra breaks the barrier of 90m, he will do it by a big margin, going past the elusive mark by 3 to 4 metres.
"If I say in the language of javelin throw, 89-plus has become a barrier for Neeraj currently. I have seen in my sporting career of 20 years, when a barrier is broken it does not break by just a mere metre or so, but by 3 to 4 metres," the 43-year-old Jhajharia told PTI.
"When Neeraj does that, he will not throw just 90-plus, his javelin will go 3-4 metres farther. Please remember my words.
"So, Neeraj will throw 92m to 93m when the barrier is broken. He should do it in one or two years," said Jhajharia, who was elected as Paralympic Committee of India (PCI) president in March.
Jhajharia, who also won a silver in the Tokyo Paralympics to become the most decorated Indian Paralympian, said Chopra's peak form will come in the next two years.
"Age is in his favour, 26 is no age and I am hoping that he will be at his peak when he is 28 or 29. By then, he will do his best.
"He is very disciplined and very dedicated. I have seen that when we trained together in 2022 in Finland," he said.
Chopra will turn 27 in December this year.