MUMBAI: Javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra has said he is happy that he is finally getting to represent the country at the Olympics.
"I am looking forward to what will be my first experience at the Olympics. I have had a fair share of highs and lows over the past few years, and I'm happy that I am finally going to be able to represent my nation at the biggest sporting stage of them all. I was lucky to have the facilities at IIS available to me during my rehabilitation after my elbow surgery in 2019 and I truly enjoy the training environment at the facility, which is among the best I've seen across the world," said Chopra in an official release.
"I feel the junior athletes having access to the institute are extremely lucky and thank brands like Bridgestone for supporting IIS in this effort," he added.
Bridgestone India's four year-long running association with the Inspire Institute of Sport (IIS), Karnataka established a comprehensive Track & Field Program at the institute in Bellary to help talented Indian athletes achieve their dreams of representing the nation at the highest levels of international sport.
This first-of-its-kind partnership has already seen visible success with 89 medals won at national and international levels, and more recently, four athletes from the program qualified for the Tokyo Olympics. Neeraj Chopra (Javelin), Avinash Sable (Steeple Chase), Annu Rani (Javelin), M. Sreeshankar (Long Jump) will represent India in their respective events.
These athletes were trained under renowned coaches and globally benchmarked facilities at the Inspire Institute of Sport at Vijayanagar, Karnataka. The IIS is India's first privately funded High-Performance Training Centre, focused on grooming champions in India with an eye on success and podium finishes at Global sporting events and providing a safe haven for rehabilitation and off-season training for elite athletes.