Abhijit Deshmukh in Doha, Qatar
Double Olympic medallist Neeraj Chopra has won almost all the javelin titles available. He has been Olympic champion, world champion, diamond league medallist, and Asian Games and Commonwealth Games champion. But the 90m throw continues to elude him. In an exclusive chat with RevSportz ahead of the Doha Diamond League 2025, Neeraj addressed several topics, including his recent promotion to Lieutenant Colonel in the Indian army.
“I feel proud to be part of Indian army,” he said. “I joined Indian army at the end of 2016.
It wasn’t that I didn’t have other options anywhere else, but as Indian, I wanted to be part of Indian army.
“After the Tokyo 0lympics gold medal, there was talk going around my promotion, but as an athlete in the Indian army, there are some limitations to the promotion.
“I’m very happy that I got promoted and will try to bring pride to the country always.
“Whenever I land in India, or after winning a medal, I go to directly to the Rajrif [Rajputana Rifles] centre,” added Neeraj. “I meet all my officers, jawans and share my experience of winning medals and the experience of how it felt after hearing the national anthem.”
Neeraj is now coached by legend Jan Železný, who still holds the world record of 98.48m. “Training is going on good, and performance has been consistent,” said Neeraj. “We did some really good throwing sessions. The best part has been that I don’t have much of the groin issues which I had in past. I’m feeling good and feel like I’m ready for a good throw. I’m quite excited about opening the season on Friday.”
There other Indian athletes are also participating in Doha – Parul Chaudhary in the women’s 3000m steeplechase, Gulveer Singh in the men’s 5000m and Kishore Jena alongside Neeraj in the javelin.
“I’m very happy that, for the first time, four Indian athletes are participating in the Diamond League,” said Neeraj. “I want more and more Indian athletes to compete in the Diamond Leagues, like in Europe. If we compete together in such athletics meets, this is a sign that our Indian athletics is growing. if they compete here, their experience will grow. It will make them mentally strong as well competing with world-class athletes.”
Asked how excited he was to be back competing again, Neeraj said: “Our sport is parde ke peeche waali mehnat [hard work behind the curtain], as we have very few competition days in a year. Our sport is season-based, that’s when we compete. We don’t have daily competition, only 8-10 competitions every year and some of the tournaments are not even broadcast back in India.
“So, only Olympics or Asian/Commonwealth Games are the ones when people can get to watch us. The life of an athlete is hard. We train for the entire year, face many difficulties, we get injured as well. Our season begins tomorrow. We are trying hard that Indian athletics grows and reaches to many people in India, so that they get to know more about athletics and support us.”
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