Neeraj Chopra will tick off an item in his bucket list with an eponymous javelin competition in Bengaluru next month but the poster boy of Indian athletics has also added a new one to it - watching a Diamond League event in the country.
The Neeraj Chopra Classic on May 24 will be a World Athletics Gold category event featuring former world champions Anderson Peters and Julius Yego, 2016 Olympic winner Thomas Roehler and American Curtis Thompson among others.
Chopra said the NC Classic will be an annual competition and he is hoping that events other than javelin will be added in the future.
Chopra won the gold at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics but settled for silver behind Pakistan's Arshad Nadeem in Paris last year.
Chopra is the first Indian track-and-field athlete to win an Olympic gold, world championship and the Diamond League and has single-handedly raised the profile of Olympic sports in an otherwise cricket-mad country.
Having an event bearing his name, like pole vaulter Armand Duplantis has one Sweden, is another dream Chopra wanted to fulfil.
"It's always been a dream of mine to see India host a world class athletic event. To have such an event, that too named after me, feels surreal," the 27-year-old said.
"I wanted to state that this event will be an annual affair. As of now, it will be just a men's javelin event. But in future, I am hoping other events will also be added.
"We (India) are good at long jump (men and women), 3000m steeplechase, and we can add these event in future. The men's 100m is doing well, the timing is getting better and better.
"It was a surprise for me that this event got World Athletics A category. We will try to bring a Diamond League Meeting in India. We have the stadium to host DL Meetings, and it will be good for World Athletics also to spread athletics. World Athletics knows that athletics is growing in India."
Chopra started his season on a high by winning the Potch Invitational Track event in Potchefstroom, South Africa on April 16 with a throw of 84.52m.
His next event will be the Doha leg of the Diamond League Meetings on May 16.
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