"No 90m Pressure On Me": Neeraj Chopra After Becoming First Indian To Win Diamond League Finals

Commercial obligations and social commitments took a toll on Neeraj Chopra following his historic Olympic gold. Having "learned" from experience, he plans to do things differently heading into next season. Olympic gold medallist javelin thrower Chopra on Thursday achieved yet another historic feat as he became the first Indian to win the prestigious Diamond League Finals title in Zurich. Hours after his latest feat in the Swiss city, the 24-year-old woke up to a posse of Indian scribes waiting to get a quote or two from the country's track & field elite during a virtual interaction. One of the questions was on his off-season planning in the future.

"Last year was a very new experience for me, balancing was difficult, but I learned from last season," Chopra said.

He vouched he will avoid everything he did in the last off-season, in order to peak at the right time and maintain his fitness.

"This time for the few commercial commitments I will give dates in advance. When the training time comes, I will be fully focussed on that ... so that the preparation is taken care of well..

"I will not rest too much, will start training early, and keep my weight in check by not eating much." The world championship silver medallist added, "I started training late after Olympics. The biggest challenge was to regain fitness, I worked on techniques, worked on strength.

"I was very good technically this time. Javelin is a technical event, so it helped me this time." While he has been consistently throwing in the high eighties, Chopra has yet to cross the 90m barrier, but he is least perturbed by that as he feels winning matters the most.

"I am not disappointed at all, it's (90m) just a magical mark. It all depends on how you perform on that