India's golden boy Neeraj Chopra on Sunday (26 May) pulled out from the Ostrava Golden Spike 2024. The news caught the attention of Indian fans thinking the javelin thrower is injured and could also miss the Paris Olympics 2024 set to take place this year in France. However, Neeraj took on social media to clarify the whole situation.
Chopra took to X and wrote, "Hello everyone! Following a recent throwing session, I decided not to compete in Ostrava as I felt something in my adductor. I have had problems with it in the past and pushing it at this stage can lead to injury." (Watch: Neeraj Chopra Narrowly Misses Top Spot in Doha Diamond League Javelin Throw, Video Goes Viral)
He added, Just to clarify, I am not injured but I don't want to take any risk during the Olympic year so had to take the decision. Once I feel its fully recovered, I will get back to competitions. Thank you for your support (sic)."
This marks the second successive year that Neeraj had to pull out of the Ostrava Golden Spike. He was also listed to compete last year but failed to make it due to a muscle injury.
The Ostrava meet was supposed to be Neeraj Chopra's third competitive outing of the season.
Before the start of the upcoming Paris Olympics 2024, Neeraj started his season at the Doha Diamond League on May 11 and ended in second place with a throw of 88.36m. Recently, Chopra competed at the Federation Cup athletics meet in Bhubaneswar on May 15 and won the gold medal in his first competitive outing in India since 2021. The ace javelin thrower logged a stunning throw of 82.27m to beat Manu DP at the Kalinga Stadium. This was his first domestic competition after his gold medal win in the Tokyo Olympics back in 2021. Neeraj Chopra is listed to compete in the Paavo Nurmi Games in Finland's Turku next on June 18.
