Neeraj Chopra to open international season in Lisbon on Thursday

Neeraj Chopra, currently third in the world list in his event, last competed outside in South Africa in January last year.

Chopra has not taken part in any international event after qualifying for the Tokyo Olympics in January last year.

Asian Games champion Neeraj Chopra will open his international season at the Lisbon City athletics meet in Portugal on Thursday.

The 23-year-old javelin thrower, currently third in the world list in his event, last competed outside in South Africa in January last year.

“He has reached Lisbon and is done with quarantine today,” said Manisha Malhotra, the head of sports excellence at JSW Sports which is supporting Chopra, on Wednesday.

READ: Neeraj Chopra reaches Portugal, to compete on June 10

“After Lisbon, he will be competing in Karlstad (GP, Sweden, June 22), Kourtane (Games, Finland, June 26), Lucerne (Switzerland, June 29) and Gateshead.”

Chopra (personal best 88.07m) will be the biggest name in the Lisbon meet and is the favourite for the title as his nearest challenger, Portugal national champion Leandro Ramos, has a personal best of 80.81m.

Jumpers in European meets

While almost all the national campers are sitting at home with news of their foreign trips being cancelled one after another, triple jumper Praveen Chitravel and long jumper Jeswin Aldrin are also in competing outside, with their base in France, with JSW’s support.

Chitravel, who has a personal best of 16.51, came up with 15.92 and 15.86m in two meets early this month in France while Aldrin had a best of 7.52m in an event on Saturday.

“They will be outside till the first week of July,” said Malhotra.