Neeraj Chopra looks to securing second Olympic gold medal in 2024: ‘Final will be a cracker’

Following his qualification to the final of the men's javelin throw at the ongoing Paris Olympics, India's defending champion and World Championships gold medalist Neeraj Chopra cites, ‘The mindset and situation of a qualification and final are completely different’

“You have to just focus on the fact that you’ve had a good start and now you put in your best preparation towards the final. My goal was to qualify with a good throw in the qualification and attempt to do it in one throw itself,” Neeraj told reporters.

“I try to make my best throw in the first attempt but it doesn’t always work that way. Things can go wrong sometimes. But it feels good to have a good throw in qualification. It was in fact my best throw in a qualification round. You gain a lot of confidence and motivation. Others also seem to be in good form. Whoever has achieved automatic qualification are in good form. I want to be a lot more prepared for the final than I was today.”

Laying down the difference between playing at Tokyo Olympics in 2020 and in Paris, Neeraj said that he threw the javelin in sunshine at Tokyo, but it is much cooler and less humid at Paris.

"In Tokyo, we threw in the sunshine and here it's a bit cooler and the humidity is much lesser. Tokyo was much warmer and more humid than Paris. The big difference is that there are crowds here," said Neeraj told Jio Cinema.

On the challenge of defending his title, Neeraj stated: "Being defending champion is motivation and I need to be prepared. The mind should be focused on doing the job at hand."

Chopra registered a huge throw of 89.34 metres in Group B of the men's javelin throw qualification round at the Paris Olympics on Tuesday and made his way into the finals. The star athlete threw 89.34 m in his first attempt, his best throw this season. The final will be played on Thursday at 11:55 pm IST. He successfully breached the qualification mark of 84.00 m.