We expect another 'Javscript' from him

India’s Neeraj Chopra competes in the javelin throw qualification during the World Athletics Championships in Budapest, Hungary, on August 25, 2023. Pic/Getty Images

Neeraj Chopra premiered his competitive season in 2023 only in May at the Doha Diamond League, but he can be expected to make an earlier start in the Olympic year. He has left everyone guessing about when he may enter a meet. His choice of Potchefstroom in South Africa as his pre-season training base is an indication that he may be seen in action sooner than in 2023.

In the new year, his ability to find the perfect balance of flexibility, speed, agility and power will be put to its biggest test in 2024 when he seeks a second successive Olympic Games javelin throw gold in Paris on August 6 and 7. Obviously, the Olympics will be his biggest competition in 2024 while the Diamond League Finals in Brussels a month later will also be very high on his calendar.

Besides the Olympic Games and the Diamond League series highlighting his calendar, he will be aware that the 90m arc remains to be tackled. The mark is not exactly the holy grail in men's javelin throw since the world record is an incredible 98.48m set by Jan Zelezny on May 25, 1996. But entry into the exclusive 90m club will be quite an event in itself.

Chopra got to within six centimetres of that mark in Sweden, on June 30, 2022. But the 25-year-old does not need reminding that through 2023 he did not touch the 89m, with the 88.88m in the Hangzhou Asian Games being his best. There have been some whispers that while he has been a fierce competitor, he has not shown the improvement that connoisseurs want to see.

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He will bid to remain injury-free and overcome any doubts about a groin muscle that wove unwanted cobwebs in his mind to the point that his hand sub-consciously reached out to the muscle before and after each throw. He embraced a conservative approach through 2023 but he will want everything to fall in place better in 2024 so that he can just be a bit more fearless.

For an athlete who competes in so few events each year and whose throws have been broadcast live only sporadically, Chopra has wafted effortlessly into the nation's collective consciousness. It is a phenomenal achievement that has not been easy by any stretch of imagination but one that will take some beating. He may well add another great chapter in the new year.