Neeraj Chopra finishes second despite broken hand

A day after finishing second at the 2024 Diamond League final in Brussels, Belgium, India’s Neeraj Chopra announced that he had entered the tournament with a broken hand.

Chopra, who finished just 1cm behind Grenada’s Anderson Peters with a throw of 87.86m, revealed the same on his social media accounts.

“On Monday I injured myself during training and x-rays showed that I broke the fourth metacarpal bone in my left hand,” Chopra wrote in his post.

“It was another painful challenge for me. But with the help of my team I was able to participate in Brussels.”

The Diamond League final also marked the end of the 2024 season for Chopra, who won his second Olympic medal, this time silver, in addition to the gold from Tokyo 2020, at the Paris Games in August.

“This was the last competition of the year and I wanted to finish my season on the track,” Chopra wrote. “Although I couldn’t live up to my own expectations, I feel like this was a season in which I learned a lot. I am now determined to come back, fully fit and ready to go.”

The 2024 season has been tough for the Indian javelin thrower. The 26-year-old Chopra has struggled for most of the season with a groin injury, which he first suffered last year.

However, the Khel Ratna award winner decided not to undergo surgery given the proximity of the Paris Olympics and continued to play throughout the season despite not being fully fit.

Chopra is expected to decide whether to undergo groin surgery in the off-season.