All eyes on India’s Olympic champion Neeraj Chopra as he returns to competition after a gap of 10 months

India's Olympic champion Neeraj Chopra returns to competition at the Paavo Nurmi Games in Turku, Finland, on Tuesday, June 14 after a long gap of nearly 10 months. The event is part of the World Athletics Continental Tour Gold Series and will be Chopra's first competition of the 2022 season.

With a 87.58m distance, the 24-year-old Indian thrower won gold at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games held last year, becoming the first Indian to win Olympic track and field gold. Chopra, however, has delayed his 2022 campaign due to personal engagements at the domestic level.

Despite not being competitively sharp, Chopra is ready to battle the world leaders. There is excitement in the air as everyone is eagerly waiting to watch him perform in his first competition of the year, an official associated with Chopra's training programme told Sportskeeda on Monday.

In March, Chopra’s training base was Turkey, but he recently shifted to Finland to acclimatize to the climate.

Chopra's lifetime best of 88.07m was recorded early in 2021. But, this year four of the world's leading throwers have already crossed 89m. Anderson Peters, the Grenadian, is the world leader whose best throw in May was 93.07m in Doha. Peters, 24, also recorded a big throw of 90.75m in Hengelo, Netherlands.

Germany's Julian Weber (89.54m) and Olympic silver medalist Jakub Vadlejch (90.88m) will also compete in Turku. The 2012 London Olympic Games champion Keshorn Walcott has also recorded 89.07m this year. Andreas Hoffman of Germany has also gone past 90m mark this year, having a personal best of 92.06m.

Chopra's next stop will be the Kuortane Games on June 18. His main goal will be to do well in next month’s World Athletics Championship in July, followed by the Birmingham Commonwealth Games, where Chopra is the defending champion.