Neeraj Chopra explains reason behind split with coach Jan Zelezny: 'After Tokyo Worlds I decided...'

Javelin star Neeraj Chopra begins his 2026 season at the Doha Diamond League meet that will be taking place in the Qatari capital on Friday, 19 June. The two-time Olympic medallist and former world champion will be returning to action for the first time since an underwhelming performance at last year's World Championships in Tokyo, where he finished eighth in the final with a best throw of 84.03 metres in his second attempt.

Chopra had parted ways with Czech javelin legend Jan Zelezny in January this year, their partnership lasting just one season. The 28-year-old star athlete from Haryana has been working with Jai Chaudhary – his first coach in his hometown of Panipat who had introduced him to the fundamentals of the sport – since then.

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Speaking to reporters on the eve of the seventh leg of the 2026 Diamond League, Chopra explained the reason behind his decision to part ways with Zelezny – whose world record of 98.48 metres set in 1996 remains unbroken to this day.

"After Tokyo, me and Jan were working on very specific things, but I needed to stay in one place throughout the season and that wasn't really possible," Chopra said at a press conference.

"After Tokyo Worlds I decided that maybe I needed to work with my own ideas and approach. Now I'm working with someone who was my senior when I first started. He knows my story from the last 15-16 years.

"I really like this approach. We spoke about it and decided to start training together because he already understands my training plans and everything," he added.

Historic 90m throw was not perfect, claims Chopra

The Doha Diamond League will be taking place at the Khalifa International Stadium and will be getting underway at 8.10 pm IST, with the men's javelin event expected to get underway shortly after 11 pm.

It was at this event last year that Chopra had finally conquered the 90m hurdle, achieving a feat that had eluded him throughout his career. His 90.23m throw however, wasn't enough for Chopra to win the event, with Germany's Julian Weber also breaching the 90-metre mark for the first time in his career and winning the event with a best throw of 91.06m.

And on Thursday, Chopra claimed that his historic throw that finally took the monkey off his back was "not perfect", and that he can improve by another couple of metres.

"Technically, that throw was not that good, it was really fast from the arm but if I had done better with my lower body, that may be (added) two to three metre more. I looked at the video not so many times," added Chopra, who had won a historic gold at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and followed it up with a silver in Paris 2024.