With 90m monkey off his back, Neeraj aiming to throw farther

The Indian javelin star finally broke the 90m barrier to finish behind Germany's Julian Weber at Doha Diamond League

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DOHA: Relieved, happy but a touch disappointed too, Indian javelin throw star Neeraj Chopra said now that he is done breaching the 90m mark, he would be striving to go farther as his body is more or less free of the niggles that plagued him in the past few years.

The 27-year-old two-time Olympic-medallist sent his spear to 90.23m in the Diamond League season-opener here on Friday but finished second overall after Germany's Julian Weber took the top spot with a 91.06m effort in his final throw.

"I am very happy with the 90m mark but it's a little bit of a bittersweet experience actually. But never mind, I and my coach (the legendary Jan Zelezny) are still working on some aspects of my throw.

"We started working together only in February this year. I am still learning things," Chopra said after the event.

Zelezny, who holds the world record for the longest throw (98.48m), doesn't normally attend Diamond Leagues but the Czech came with Chopra last night because he felt "today is the day to achieve 90m."