New Delhi, Sept. 20 -- India's star javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra termed his absence from the Asian Games unfortunate but said it was important to "accept" the setback and focus on making a quick comeback. The 28-year-old, who won India's first Olympic gold medal in athletics with his javelin triumph at Tokyo and followed it up with a silver in Paris, missed out on a chance to complete a hat-trick of Asian Games gold medals after suffering a ligament injury while training.
The injury came soon after Chopra produced a season-best throw of 88.05m at the Lausanne Diamond League, bringing his 2026 competitive season to an early end and ruling him out of the Asian Games and the Diamond League Final.
"It is definitely difficult. I wouldn't say it is easy," he said on the Khelo Bharat Podcast of the Sports Authority of India (SAI).
"It has become a little normal for me because this has happened quite a few times in my career. There have been times when I was very well prepared and suddenly suffered an injury. "Even after winning many things, you still feel that if you had been able to use that time without the injury, perhaps even better things could have happened."
Chopra said the latest injury was particularly frustrating because he felt he had finally returned to his best after recovering from an earlier setback.
"When I felt that I was finally back to being the old Neeraj again, with the same enthusiasm and consistency, I threw 88 metres. Then, just a day later, I got injured again during training. The first few minutes were very difficult for me. I couldn't process what was happening," he said.
"I pushed myself so much, mentally and physically. I had started training right from the beginning of the year. I hadn't really spent any time with my family. I had focused completely on training and competitions because it was a very busy year.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.