London: India’s ground-breaking Olympic star Neeraj Chopra, the javelin gold medal winner at Tokyo, has declared his ambitious targets for 2022, which include challenging for his first-ever World Championship title, defending his Commonwealth Games and Asian Games gold medals, and breaking the 90-metre mark for the first time. Chopra, India’s first winner of a track and field gold medal in his debut Olympic Games, earned a nomination for the prestigious 2022 Laureus World Sports Awards in the World Breakthrough of the Year category as a result. “The gold medal has motivated me in life to do even better. Performing well and ending up on the podium will be my target in the World Championship which is going to take place in July,” Chopra told the website of the global sporting organisation. “Besides that, there are other big tournaments lined up this year such as Commonwealth Games, Asian Games, Diamond League Final. All of these are really major tournaments. “While training, it always comes to mind that I have to win medals in all these major tournaments. I have won a gold medal in Commonwealth and Asian Games and I would like to repeat my performance there. I represented India in the World Championship held in London. I couldn’t get into the finals there, but I’ll try my best to finish the tournament on the podium this year.” Chopra has also set his sights on achieving a new personal best in 2022. At the moment it stands at 88.03 metres, and he said: “When it comes to achieving a specific distance, we have been trying to reach the 90 metres mark for a very long time now. “I think I can really do it sometime soon in the near future. There’s no pressure on me to get past 90 metres, but I will work on my technique along with my strength and speed and would like to achieve it this year. “I always think whatever I’ve done and achieved so far is not ‘the-best’. I think that I can really do better in future. It feels good that whole nation believes in me and have really high hopes for me.” In 2011, he had started attending a gym under pressure from his family to improve his fitness. While there he saw athletes practising and developed an interest in javelin and took up the sport. Also nominated in the Laureus World Breakthrough of the Year category with Chopra are tennis players Daniil Medvedev and Emma Raducanu, FC Barcelona football star Pedri, Venezuelan triple jump world record holder Yulimar Rojas and Australian swimmer Ariarne Titmus. UNI PN
