Star Indian javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra on November 9, 2024 roped in Jan Zelezny, one of many best the game has produced, as coach to assist put together him for the upcoming season.
| Photograph Credit score: AP
Simply days after he penned a heartfelt notice of because of long-time coach Klaus Bartonietz, Neeraj Chopra on Saturday (November 9, 2024) formally confirmed becoming a member of palms with Czech javelin legend Jan Železný as his new coach to coach with.
Double Olympic medalist Chopra will probably be a part of Železný’s coaching group, the Czech Athletics Federation has confirmed, with the 2 formally met in the course of the annual year-ending coaching camp at Potchefstroom, South Africa later this 12 months. Železný’s wage will probably be funded by the Sports activities Ministry. The affiliation, nonetheless, will solely be for the subsequent two years beginning 2025.
Železný, a three-time Olympic and World champion and the present world document holder, and Chopra share mutual admiration going again to his junior days. “Rising up, I admired Jan’s method and precision and spent a variety of time watching his movies. He was the very best for thus a few years and I consider working with him will probably be invaluable as a result of our throwing types are related and his data is unmatched. It’s an honour to have Jan by my aspect as I push in the direction of the subsequent stage in my profession,” Chopra mentioned in an announcement.
The Czech thrower coached the opposite two javelin medalists at Tokyo Olympics — Jakub Vadlejch and Vítězslav Veselý — and two-time Olympic and three-time World champion Barbora Špotáková. Vadlejch, who had been with Zelezny since 2010, nonetheless, has determined to depart the coaching group and work with Czech nationwide coach Miroslav Guzdek as a substitute.
“When arranging additional cooperation, I knowledgeable my costs that my plan is to guide the highest coaching group for 2 extra years and never the whole Olympic cycle. We agreed with Jakub that he is not going to put together for the subsequent season in my group. We additionally got here to this conclusion after we couldn’t discover a consensus on the inclusion of Neeraj Chopra in our group,” Zelezny defined on the CAF web site.
Chopra had approached him just a few weeks in the past and Zelezny welcomed the inclusion. “I’ve already spoken about Neeraj as an amazing expertise a few years in the past. After I noticed him early in his profession, I realised nice potentialities for prime outcomes. I additionally mentioned that if I ought to begin to coach someone from outdoors Czechia, my first alternative can be Neeraj. There have been many athletes contacting me for teaching so for me to take this up signifies that it’s a nice honour to have him in my group.
“I additionally noticed an amazing profit for the opposite members of my group, by which the very best javelin throwers on this planet would encourage one another and everybody would profit from it. We’re attending to know one another extra intently and can begin in individual at a conventional winter camp in South Africa,” he added.
Železný, who gained consecutive golds from 1992-2000 Olympics, has 5 of the highest ten throws of all time and holds the present document of 98.48m.
Revealed – November 09, 2024 03:30 pm IST
