Ostrava (Czech Republic), June 23: Forced to skip the last two editions due to fitness issues, Indian javelin throw superstar Neeraj Chopra will look to claim the title when he makes his debut at the Golden Spike Athletics meet on Tuesday, an event that his coach Jan Zelezny won nine times in a storied career.
The 27-year-old Chopra has had an impressive season so far, having won his first Diamond League title in two years in Paris after also breaching the elusive 90m mark during his second place finish in Doha DL in May.
He was to take part at Golden Spike — a World Athletics Continental Tour Category A event — in 2023 and 2024 but had to skip the meet on both occasions. In 2024, he was present as a guest after opting out of competition due to an adductor muscle niggle.
The double Olympic-medallist will be all the more eager to win the title as the Golden Spike was world record holder Zelezny’s happy hunting ground during his playing days.
The Czech legend, now 59, won nine titles between 1986 and 2006 — few of them with 90m-plus throws — in this prestigious event which was first held in 1961.
Chopra has competed in Ostrava in the past but not at Golden Spike. He was part of the Asia Pacific team that competed in the IAAF Continental Cup in 2018 and had finished sixth with a throw of 80.24m.
“When I was kid, I watched a lot of videos and photos of athletes such as Usain Bolt competing here. I came last year but I didn’t compete because of injury. Now I feel good, but I don’t want to put any pressure on myself for 90m. But I’ll try really hard,” Chopra said ahead of the competition on Tuesday.
“Recently we’ve done a good training in Nymburk (near capital Prague) so I’ll do my best here in Ostrava.”
The Indian, after winning the Paris DL, had spoken about the need to work on his core muscles for better control on his throws after admitting that his run-up was perhaps a shade too fast.
In the absence of his German rival Julian Weber, the field in Ostrava is thin and Chopra will, no doubt, be the favourite for the title.
Weber had beaten Chopra in Doha DL on May 16 and in Janusz Kusocinski Memorial meet on May 23 in Poland but the Indian upstaged him in Paris on June 20 with his first round throw of 88.16m.
Before Paris, Chopra had won his last DL title in Lausanne in June 2023 with a throw of 87.66m.
Anderson Peters will also be in the fray in Ostrava but the two-time world champion from Grenada has been struggling to get the big throws.
He finished third in both Doha DL and Janusz Kusocinski Memorial meet, behind Weber and Chopra, and ended even lower at fifth in Paris with a modest 80.29m.
Another German, 2016 Rio Olympics gold winner Thomas Rohler, will also compete though he is yet to gather steam in the season. The 30-year-old has a season’s best of 80.79m.
In fact, Rohler, who has a personal best of 93.90m, achieved way back in 2017, has been struggling for a long time. Between 2020 and 2024, he managed just one 80m-plus throw.
Interestingly, Rohler won the javelin title in the 2018 IAAF Continental Cup in Ostrava with a throw of 87.07m with Chopra finishing sixth. On Tuesday, Chopra will be hoping to go even.
Among the other six in the nine-man field in Ostrava, Tony Keranen of Finland has the best personal best of 85.27m. Chopra will be up against Peters and Rohler again at the NC Classic which he is hosting in Bengaluru on July 5. (PTI)
