New Delhi: India’s double Olympics and World Championships javelin medallist Neeraj Chopra announced on Saturday that he had parted ways with coach Jan Zelezny, having started to train under the Czech great after the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Chopra, 28, who won the 2021 Tokyo Olympics gold medal to become India’s first individual Olympic champion in athletics, is currently recovering from a back issue that hampered his medal chances at last year’s World Championships in Tokyo, where he finished eighth.

“Working with Jan opened my eyes to so many new ideas. The way he thinks about technique, rhythm, and movement is incredible, and I learned a lot from every single session we had together,” PTI quoted Chopra as saying in a media statement.

“What I’m most proud of is the friendship I’ve built with someone who has been my idol all my life. Jan is not only the best javelin thrower of all time, but also one of the best human beings I have ever met,” Chopra said.

Recalling their wonderful relationship as coach and trainee and at a personal level, Zelezny said: “Working with an athlete like Neeraj was a great experience. I’m glad we met and were able to work together, that I got him to break the 90-metre barrier for the first time.

“Apart from the World Championships (in Tokyo), he finished at worst second and that is not a bad record. Unfortunately, the back injury 12 days before Tokyo significantly affected his chances,” Zelezny said in the press release.

Chopra, who burst on to the world scene when he won the 2016 World U20 Championships with a record effort of 86.48m in Poland, has worked with a few foreign coaches. Australia’s Gary Calvert guided him during 2016-17 before he trained under Germany’s former javelin great Uwe Hohn. However, it was under Germany’s bio-mechanical expert Klaus Bartonietz, who began coaching Chopra in late 2019, that he scaled great heights.

It was under Bartonietz that Chopra, following the 2021 Tokyo Olympics victory, went on to claim silver in the 2022 Eugene World Championships and then won gold at the 2023 Budapest worlds. The 2024 Paris Olympics silver was also under Bartonietz, after which the athlete-coach duo ended their hugely successful partnership.

Chopra, whose burning desire was to break the 90m mark, started training under Zelezny and achieved that milestone dream when he threw 90.23m at the 2025 Doha Diamond League.

Looking ahead, Chopra did not spell out his specific future plans, but was quoted as saying by PTI in the statement: “I’m looking forward to what 2026 has in store. I started my preparation in early November. As always, the goal is to stay healthy, and I am already excited to be competing again soon. At the same time, I’m especially looking ahead to the year with the World Championships in 2027, and the big goal beyond that is the Olympic Games in 2028.”