Picture Credit: Instagram
India's gold medal-winning javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra shared a video of himself practising his throw underwater. The 23-year-old could be seen wearing am underwater gear while imitating his moves from the sport. India's new poster boy for Olympic sport is currently in the Maldives and took to his social media to not only share the video but also inform that his training has resumed post the historic Gold on August 8 which is now set to be celebrated as the National Javelin Throw Day in India.
In his caption to the video, Chopra wrote that he thinks about Javelin not only in the skies or lands but also underwater. "Aasman par, zameen pe, ya underwater, I'm always thinking of the javelin! PS: Training shuru ho gayi hai," he wrote.
Check out the video here:
Notably, Neeraj was simply outstanding in his performance at Tokyo 2020. While he not only topped the qualification round with his first throw, he also took the lead in his first throw before his gold-clinching second throw at Tokyo. 87.58 m is the figure that has etched itself in the history of Indian sports- the distance that Neeraj's javelin flew and ended the country's wait for over a hundred years long wait in athletics not only by any medal but by the best one on offer.
Lots of functions, award ceremonies, interview requests, a sudden surge in brand value and whole lots of commitments and fever due to exhaustion later, meant his season came to a premature end after the Olympic win. However, the positive thing is that Neeraj has been able to resume his season and has set his eyes on the Commonwealth as well as the Asian Games next year.
Neeraj has also gone on record saying that his next target is the hallowed 90m mark in javelin, one which his rival Germany's Johannes Vetter has crossed many a time in recent years. However, on the day of the javelin throw final, it was the Indian who shone and rose to the occasion while Vetter finished ninth, not even in the final eight.