Picture Credit: Twitter
India's golden boy Neeraj Chopra rose to fame in Tokyo Olympics 2020 as he bagged the maiden gold medal for India in athletics at the Olympic games. Chopra also became only the second individual gold medallist from India after Abhinav Bindra won the honours in the 2008 Beijing Games in a 10m rifle shooting. However, Chopra has not participated in any competition since bagging historic gold in the Tokyo Olympics.
In a recent update, the 24-year-old is all set to make a remarkable return to the field at the Paavo Nurmi Games in Turku, Finland. The javelin thrower steps onto the field for the first time after securing India’s first gold in track & field at Tokyo Olympics coming Tuesday.
The official Twitter handle of Paavo Nurmi Games welcomed the gold-medalist on Twitter as they posted the picture of Chopra and wrote a special message for the athlete.
"First-Ever Indian Olympic Champion is in the house! Neeraj Chopra, it's a pleasure to have you in #Turku! Javelin will be EPIC!," read the caption.
The Paavo Nurmi Games, a gold event in the World Athletics Continental Tour is one of the biggest track-and-field competitions outside the Diamond League and this year's event has a super stacked field.
Chopra will be up against his arch-rival Johannes Vetter and World champion Anderson Peters, who improved his personal best to 93.07 metres at the Diamond League in Doha. However, Chopra has been away from the competition for almost ten months whereas, his arch-rivals have been participating in competitions full-fledged.
As per reports, Anderson Peters and Vadlejch have breached the 90m mark this season at the Doha Diamond League. Peter's gold medal-winning throw of 93.07m at Doha is the season's best in 2022. Chopra, the only Indian competing at the Paavo Nurmi Games, will look to get himself back into rhythm as he heads for next month's Athletics Championships and Commonwealth Games. After Turku, Chopra will compete at the Kuortane Games in Finland before heading to Sweden for the Stockholm leg of the Diamond League.