Neeraj Chopra confirms participation in Diamond League in Lausanne, opens up to rivalry with Arshad Nadeem | Olympics

Nadeem also made history by breaking the Olympic record in the javelin throw, achieving a result of 92.97m.

Neeraj confirmed his participation in Lausanne while speaking to the press. He said, “I never thought I wouldn’t be able to do it… Arshad Nadeem’s previous best was 90.18m which he achieved at the Commonwealth Games and my previous best was 89.94m… I couldn’t bring myself to the extreme. I was mentally ready but physically I had to retrain. My footwork on the run-up was not what it should have been. My efforts were going in vain. My throw immediately after Nadeem’s throw was good because I was extremely positive…”

“… I finally decided to take part in the Diamond League in Lausanne, which starts on August 22,” he added.

Nadeem started his first attempt with 91.79m and then shot 92.97m to secure the gold. In his sixth attempt, he shot 91.79m. Meanwhile, Neeraj’s best throw was 89.45m, which he shot in his second attempt. He struggled with four consecutive foul throws. His first and third throws were cancelled due to red delays and his last three were also fouls.

After winning silver, he told Olympics.com: “It was a good throw, but I’m not happy with my performance today. My technique and run-up weren’t very good. (I managed) only one throw, the rest I fouled. (On) the second throw I thought I could throw that far too. But in javelin, if your run is not very good, you can’t throw very far. The last two or three years haven’t been very good for me. I’m always injured. I really tried, but I have to work on my injury (stay injury-free) and my technique.”