In rare home appearance, Neeraj Chopra favourite to win inaugural NC Classic
At 27, his achievements have already swelled to legendary proportions as he has won almost all the titles his sport has to offer — Olympics and world championships gold medals, Diamond League Finals Trophy, not to mention the Asian Games and Commonwealth Games gold medals.
But, the inaugural edition of Neeraj Chopra Classic is more than achieving success on the field, it's giving the Indian fans a chance to watch top-class competition in person, something that will help raise the profile of the sport in the country.
He has been inspired by world record holder Swedish pole vaulter Armando Duplantis and Kenyan distance running legend Kipchoge Keino who have international showpieces named after them — Mondo Classic and Kip Keino Classic, which are World Athletics Continental Tour events.
During the competition at the Kanteerava Stadium, which will last just over one hour, fans will get a glimpse of the double Olympic medallist in action. He would look to repay the affection with a 90-plus throw, which he achieved for the first time in his career in Doha in May. He would be competing in India after a one-year gap.
"It's a long-standing dream for me to organise this kind of an event in India. It's a dream true for me," said the athlete from Haryana's Khandra village who became Indian athletic's first gold medal winner in the Olympics in Tokyo before adding a silver in Paris in 2024.
"I am very excited. I have won Olympic and other medals for the country. Now with this event, I am giving back something to Indian athletics, to Indian athletes and the fans." Chopra is organising the event with JSW Sports in collaboration with the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) and World Athletics. Chopra said the NC Classic will be an annual competition and he is hoping that events other than javelin will be added in the future.
The NC Classic was to be earlier held in Panchkula (Haryana) on May 24 but was shifted to Bengaluru due to inadequate lighting required for international broadcasters.
The event was later postponed because of the military conflict between India and Pakistan in the aftermath of the Pahalgam terror attack.
It is set to be the most high profile single discipline international athletics competition ever held in India as the World Athletics has granted it Category A status.
Though the field has become thin with some pull-outs, the most recent being two-time world champion Anderson Peters of Grenada due to injury, Chopra's star power would be enough to ensure that the stadium is packed to the rafters.
The 12-man field is still world class as five competitors have already breached the qualifying mark for the World Championships in Tokyo later this year.
Chopra's legendary coach Jan Zelezny, the world record holder, has also landed in the city and the Indian fans will be able to get a glimpse of the multiple-time Olympic and World Championships gold medal-winner.
Clearly, Chopra will be the favourite to win the title. There is no Julian Weber and Peters has pulled out. The duo challenged Chopra this season the most. Weber beat him twice before the Indian upstaged him last month in the Paris Diamond League. Peters has finished third twice.
Pakistan's Olympic champion Arshad Nadeem was also invited but he declined it, saying it will clash with his training schedule.
Germany's 2016 Olympic champion Thomas Rohler (PB: 93.90m), Kenya's 2015 world champion Julius Yego (PB: 92.72m) and American Curtis Thompson (PB: 87.76m) could be Chopra's main challengers. Rohler and Yego, though, have not been in the best of form in recent times.
The other foreign competitors are Czech Republic's Martin Konecny (PB: 80.59m), Barzil's Luiz Mauricio Da Silva (PB: 86.62m), Sri Lankan Rumesh Pathirage (PB: 85.45m) and Poland's Cyprian Mrzygłod (PB: 85.92m).
Among the four other Indians, Sachin Yadav has been in the best form having won a silver in the recent Asian Championships. Yashvir Singh, who replaced an injured Kishore Jena, was fifth in the Asian Championships.
Rohit Yadav, who has the experience of competing in the 2023 World Championships in Eugene, and Sahil Silwal are the other Indians competing in the event.
For all of them, the NC Classic will be important as they will not only rub shoulders with some of the top throwers but can also qualify for this year's World Championships by breaching the direct entry standard of 85.50m or garner valuable points to make it to the showpiece through world ranking quota.
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