World No.1 javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra will not participate in the upcoming Ostrava Golden Spike 2023 athletics meet in the Czech Republic starting on June 27, as per Olympics.com.
Neeraj is recovering from a muscle strain he suffered during training last month due to which he withdrew from the FBK Games in the Netherlands on June 4 and the Paavo Nurmi Games in Finland on June 13 Additionally, the 25-year-old skipped the just-finished Bhubaneswar National Inter-State Senior Athletics Championships. Neeraj was also not named in the 54-member Indian team announced for the Asian Athletics Championships 2023 on Thursday.
Neeraj Chopra, who is currently ranked first in the men's javelin throw by World Athletics, is expected to compete on June 30 in Switzerland in the Lausanne Diamond League 2023.
The Ostrava Golden Spike is a World Athletics Continental Tour Gold meet and the organisers had earlier announced Neeraj Chopra's participation in this year's event. The men's javelin throw event at the Ostrava Golden Spike 2023 will feature prominent javelin throwers such as Grenada's reigning world champion Anderson Peters and Jakub Vadlejch, the silver medallist from the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
Neeraj will also be seen at the World Athletics Championship. It will be held in August and Neeraj will be leading a star-studded lineup at the Worlds. Indians who have qualified for the World Championships are Neeraj Chopra (Men's javelin throw), Avinash Sable (Men's 3000m steeplechase), Jeswin Aldrin (Men's long jump), M Sreeshankar (Men's long jump), Praveen Chithravel (Men's triple jump), Tajinderpal Singh Toor (Men's shot put), Priyanka Goswami (Women's 20km race walk), Akshdeep Singh (Men's 20km race walk), Vikash Singh (Men's 20km race walk), Paramjeet Bisht (Men's 20km race walk), Ram Baboo (Men's 35km race walk).
