Neeraj Chopra's World Championships Disappointment: Back Injury Hampered Javelin Star's Performance

Indian javelin ace Neeraj Chopra has been struggling with a back problem for the past two weeks, which may have impacted his performance in the World Championships final in Tokyo on Thursday. A senior Athletics Federation of India (AFI) official told PTI that Chopra had informed them about the issue, and the two-time Olympic medallist also admitted it after the competition.Chopra, who was defending the gold he won in 2023, endured a disappointing outing, finishing eighth, while compatriot Sachin Yadav impressed with a personal best to secure fourth place."Yes, it is true that Chopra has been troubled by a back problem for the last couple of weeks. He kept us informed about that," the AFI official said on the condition of anonymity."It (back problem) must have affected his performance, but he should not worry about it. Win and loss happen in sports. Moreover, javelin is such an event that you may not click very well on a particular day and nothing at all on another day."Chopra had picked up the issue while training in Czech Republic under his coach Jan Zelezny.On a day when no thrower managed to cross 90m, Chopra’s best of 84.03m came in the fifth round, leaving him eighth overall, while Yadav finished fourth with an 86.27m effort in his first attempt.Yadav’s performance, the official said, showed India’s growing depth in javelin.After his rare eighth-place finish, Chopra said, "It's happening after a long time. Normally I used to control the situation but it was a different day today. I will accept this result and will try to do my best next season."But before coming here, while training in Czech Republic, I had a back issue and due to that I have not trained for the last two weeks. Rehab is going on for that. My team knows this and I have informed AFI also."We even did not know initially whether I would be able to compete or not. But we took a decision that I would compete. I was not feeling healthy, not having much of training."Explaining how the injury happened, he said, "The incident happened on September 4. I was doing shot put throw during training. I do back throw and front throw. When I bent down for doing front throw, there was a sudden jolt on my left side, the blocking side, it got stretched and I could not even walk."We did MRI in Prague and there was some problem in disc. After we reached here on September 6, I have been undergoing treatment with the help of a machine everyday. We did a (testing) session, and decided to compete."He added that an "easy throw" came during qualification, but he could not replicate that form in the final.