Things take time to happen in big country like India, unlike Germany, says Neeraj Chopra

After a terrific 2018, where Chopra went on to gold medals in both Commonwealth Games held in Gold Coast and the Asian Games in Jakarta, he would definitely be India’s biggest hope for the Tokyo Olympics in 2020. However, his coach Hohn has been of the opinion that the medal prospect hasn’t been given the due attention from the government.

Citing reasons like the delaying getting equipment, lack of enough support staff, poor diet, and not good planning, the German coach has stated that the training of Chopra has taken a huge blow in his email to The Sunday Express. 

“Because of the very bad support of the Sports Authority of India (SAI), we need help from people or companies who like to help ASAP because with every week, bit by bit, we lose a chance to reach our high goals,” the mail read.

Chopra echoed the similar concerns that his coach had mentioned but also stated that he has an idea of the issues that the government has been facing in order to give him, and has stated that things take time to happen in a big country like India. 

“My coach, Uwe Hohn is from Germany, so sports system there is different from what we have here (in India). Our country is very big so it takes time for things to happen. Sab aaramaaramsehota hai,” said Chopra to ANI. 

“Our plans to go abroad for training have been getting delayed. That’s one of the reasons why the coach made those comments. We hope that will be done as quickly as possible so that I go out and focus on training for two-three months. Right now, training is okay but there are a lot of programmes happening, which I have to attend. It hampers my training,” he added.