Neeraj Chopra aiming to work on his 'leg blocking' technique to breach 90m mark

New Delhi, October 31

Olympic and world champion javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra on Tuesday made it clear that his best is yet to come and indicated that the elusive 90m mark could be breached next year if he makes improvement in his technique, especially concerning the leg-blocking.

Chopra became world champion earlier this year, adding to his historic gold in the Tokyo Olympics, and then defended his Asian Games title in the Hangzhou recently.

“I want to say this very clearly that my best is yet to come. I have not felt in a competition for a long time that I have done my best or done near my best,” the 25-year-old Chopra said at a promotional event here.

“6 cm is left to be achieved. It was 89.94m at Stockholm Diamond League (in June 2022). I was a bit behind the line that time. Had I thrown my javelin by moving a bit ahead, it would have been 90m,” said Chopra.

His top-class flexibility and arm speed made him Olympic and world champion but Chopra wants to perfect his leg-blocking technique.

“My coach always says that it 60 per cent legs and 40 per cent upper body. So leg work is very important. I have to do a lot of improvement in leg work,” said the superstar javelin thrower.

“I do a lot of things good. My flexibility is quite good, but personally I feel because of my arm speed, I am doing very well.

“Next year, I feel I will improve on my technique, will work more on my strength and flexibility. If everything is all right, 100 per cent fit and my groin is all right, I will do very well in Paris Olympics.”

He admitted that his technique while winning the Hangzhou Asian Games gold was not up to the mark.

“My technique was not going well during Hangzhou Asian Games. My legwork was not that good, my blocking leg was bending. It was not that great but the important thing was that my arm was giving very good throw, my arm speed was very good.”

He also said that “in some way or the other,” his preparations for Paris Olympics will be different, though he did not elaborate much.