Image Courtesy- outlookindia.com
Neeraj Chopra India’s medal hope at Olympic Games in men’s javelin throw looks not sure for this month’s Kuortane Games as the Finland government opposed the travel on Indian visitors. Kuortane Games is a one-day athletics meet scheduled to take place on June 26. Chopra was the 2018 Jakarta Asian Games champion and had got a visa to travel to France last week.
The 23-year old Chopra is expected to leave for a European training-plus-competition stint this week. He will be accompanied by foreign coach Klaus Bartonietz and physio Issan Marwaha. Coach Klaus said that since the situation is changing rapidly and it is also uncertain how many competitions Chopra would be able to compete in after the quarantine period gets over.
In March, Neeraj had improved his national record at 88.07m throw during a domestic meet in Patiala. Last year in January, the national champion with a throw of 87.86m throw developed the Tokyo Olympic games qualifying mark of 85m throw at the South African domestic tournament in Potchefstroom. After that, he has not taken part in any international competition due to the pandemic. He will be based in the other part of France in Lieven for a fortnight and will undergo a 10-day quarantine mandatory for Indians. But it would be difficult for him to get a window of two hours a day to train outdoors during quarantine.