Neeraj Chopra’s legendary coach was nervous before his historic 90-metre throw

Neeraj Chopra's camp, which includes the legend Jan Zelezny, had been a little nervous ahead of the season-opening Doha Diamond League. But the Indian ace lifted their spirits with a National Record of 90.23 metres.

In an interview with Revsportz, Chopra's physio Ishaan Marwaha said breaching the 90-metre barrier was important and now the aim is to take it step by step.

"There was some nervousness because it's the first competition. So there was some adrenaline rush in the warm-up and he was feeling good that 'today will be good'," Marwaha said during the interview.

Zelezny, who started working with Chopra ahead of the season, had been in the stands. Marwaha said the legendary thrower was relieved once Chopra hit 90.

"He's working with a new coach, and a few technical changes were made, so (we) wanted to see how it is going and all. So, he was a bit nervous and the coach was also a little nervous as we watched. But after that 90 metre throw he was very relaxed. He was like 'ok, things are going on the right track'," Marwaha said.

On Saturday, Chopra shared a photo with Marwaha and Zelezny on his social media handles. He aptly captioned it: 90.23 m. Czech great Zelezny holds the World Record of 98.48 metres set in 1996. Chopra won India's first track & field medal (gold) in Olympics in the Tokyo Games in 2021 and followed it up with a silver in the Paris Games last year.