Neeraj Chopra, who has returned home for the first time since winning a silver medal at the Paris Olympics, was given a grand welcome by the Sports University of Haryana in Rai, Sonipat, on Friday.
With his fractured left hand in a plaster, javelin-thrower Neeraj was escorted by officials as students lined up to welcome India’s track and field legend.
The Paris Olympics silver was Neeraj’s second consecutive medal at the Games, after his historic gold in Tokyo three years ago.In Paris, he was pipped for gold by Pakistan’s Arshad Nadeem. While Nadeem’s winning throw of 92.97m created a new Olympic Record, Neeraj settled for the second place with his best effort of 89.45.
Neeraj opted to stay in Europe after the Paris Games and went straight to Brussels in Belgium for the Diamond League Final, where he ended his season with another second-place finish with an effort of 87.86m, behind gold medal-winner Anderson Peterson’s 87.87m by a mere centimetre.
The double Olympic medallist later revealed in a social media post that he participated in the Diamond League Final with a fractured hand after an injury during a training session.
“As the 2024 season ends, I look back on everything I’ve learned through the year – about improvement, setbacks, mentality and more,” Neeraj wrote in a social media post after the Brussels event.
“On Monday, I injured myself in practice and x-rays showed that I had fractured the fourth metacarpal in my left hand. It was another painful challenge for me. But with the help of my team, I was able to participate in Brussels.
“This was the last competition of the year, and I wanted to end my season on the track. While I couldn’t meet my own expectations, I feel this was a season in which I learned a lot. I am now determined to return, fully fit and ready to go,” he added.
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