Interviews, felicitations & more: Neeraj Chopra's 15 days since gold

Inadvertently, Monday was one of the very few relatively free days the 23-year-old has had since landing in India on the evening of August 9.
Olympics gold medalist Neeraj Chopra. (Photo | AP)
Olympics gold medalist Neeraj Chopra. (Photo | AP)

CHENNAI: On Sunday night, Neeraj Chopra reached Pune. With the Indian Army deciding to name a sports stadium inside the Army Sports Institute after the javelin ace, Chopra — who holds the rank of subedar — reached the city a day ahead of the planned function in the presence of defence minister. However, with the defence minister needing to be at another ceremony on Monday — last rites of Kalyan Singh, the departed former UP chief minister — the function in Pune was pushed back by a day. Now, the ceremony, in the presence of the defence minister, will happen on Tuesday according to people associated with Chopra.

Inadvertently, Monday was one of the very few relatively free days the 23-year-old has had since landing in India on the evening of August 9. In the 15 days he has been in India after winning gold at the Olympics, his diary has looked like something like this — travel, meeting, photo-op, more travel, more photo-ops, function, ceremony, meeting and more functions — on an endless loop. Not to forget the endless interviews, some of them one-on-ones, to television channels, some of which he couldn’t skip even if he wanted to.

It’s little wonder then that he complained of fever and had to seek treatment where he was advised rest for a few days. However, according to sources close to him, it is something, he won’t be getting at least for the next week. After the assignment on Tuesday, he will be in Mumbai before going back to Delhi for more functions including in places like Chandigarh. In fact, there isn’t going to be a significant gap in his diary till the first week of September.

This is on top of rejecting a multitude of requests for additional photo-ops. Originally, the plan was to take part in two back-to-back Diamond League meetings in Lausanne (Aug 26) and Paris (Aug 28) but that plan has been junked as there is no point in going to an event with zero training. Once Neeraj goes on his holidays — he isn’t too fussed on it being inside or outside the country — it is expected he will get back to offseason training work in a month or so.

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