SILVER LINING DESPITE INJURY

Star javelin thrower Neeraj is expected to undergo surgery for the groin injury that has been troubling him since 2017 N EERAJ Chopra's consistency is usually up there with death and taxes as one of those few constants in life.

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But on Thursday, his results sheet read - x 89.45 X X X X. That is not what you would expect from someone who has established a gold standard for clearing distance day after day, month and month, year after year, from someone with 10 consecutive wins (gold or silver) over the last three years.

The world champion and Tokyo gold medallist had one of the most phenomenal seasons after the 2021 Games. He had raised the bar so high that silver at the Olympics - something that would spark frenzied celebrations had it been achieved by any other Indian athlete seemed like a loss. On Thursday, he was battling multiple enemies the white foul line, the less-than-comfortable runup, the demons in his head. Neeraj had also been troubled by a groin injury for some time with this newspaper reporting multiple times about how that niggle had caused him to miss events. The 26-year-old explained his predicament whenever he was forced to pull out.