New Delhi, April 21 Two-time Olympic medallist Neeraj Chopra has spilt the beans on the names of few international stars who will feature in the Neeraj Chopra Classic Javelin meet, scheduled for May 24 in Bengaluru.
Pencilled in as the NC Classic, the one-day javelin throw meet is classified as a World Athletics ‘A’ category event, equating to a Continental Tour Gold-level competition in ranking points.
Headlined by double Olympic medallist, the event will see elite male and female javelin throwers from around the world compete in India for the first time.
Addressing the media in a virtual press meet organised by JSW in regards to the upcoming international javelin event named after him 'Neeraj Chopra Classic 2025', the reigning world champion revealed that Paris Olympic bronze medallist and the two-time world champion Anderson Peters of Grenada, along with Rio Olympic silver medallist and former world champion Julius Yego of Kenya are the few javelin stars who will visit India for the one-day javelin meet.
Interestingly, Peters won the Diamond League finale in Brussels last year, pushing Neeraj Chopra to another second-placed finish.
"Anderson Peters (Grenada), Julius Yego (Kenya), Curtis Thompson (America), Thomas Rohler are among the international stars who are going to participate in the 'Neeraj Chopra Claasic' Javelin throw meet in Bengaluru. These are the few names and rest we will reveal later. There will be Indian stars as well. I spoke to Rohit (Yadav)," Chopra replied to an IANS query on Monday.
The NC Classic 2025 will serve as a crucial qualification event for the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo from September 13 to 21, though Neeraj, the reigning world champion, has already secured his spot.
"We are trying at least 4-5 Indians to compete. It's a gold-level event, which will give them good ranking points to qualify for the World Championships," he added.
When asked about the participation of the reigning Olympic champion, Arshad Nadeem of Pakistan, the 27-year-old Indian athletics star said, "We have also invited Arshad Nadeem as well but haven't received a confirmation as of yet."
Chopra further confirmed that the event, which was initially planned to take place in his native state, Haryana, at the Tau Devi Lal Stadium in Panchkula, is now relocated to Bengaluru's Sree Kanteerava Stadium.
Revealing the reason behind the change of venue, the javelin star said, "The stadium in Haryana does not have adequate lighting required for the broadcasting. It was 600 lux (in Tau Devi Lal Stadium) but we needed more. There was not enough time to get it fixed on time."
He added, "I spoke to Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, he gave us quite a positive response."
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