Neeraj will be competing in his first Olympics and he has already qualified for the Tokyo Games early last year before the COVID-19 pandemic began
With the retirement of three-time champion Usain Bolt, the 100m will have a new gold medallist at Tokyo 2020.
Multiple Olympic champion Mo Farah says the postponement of the Tokyo Games to 2021 could work to his advantage as the Briton will now have around 20 months to train for the defence of his 10,000m title having switched his focus back to the track. The 37-year-old retired from track athletics in 2017 to focus on road marathons but announced in November last year that he was returning for one more tilt at 10,000m gold.
Usain Bolt ran under 10 seconds for the first time this year as he narrowly won the 100 metres at the Monaco Diamond League meeting on Friday.
Javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra will have to wait another year before chasing India's first Olympic track and field medal in Tokyo but the delay may turn out to be a blessing in disguise, the 22-year-old said. The Commonwealth and Asian Games champion, seen as one of India's best medal prospects at the Games, spent the whole of 2019 recovering from an elbow operation on his throwing arm.
In other India-related news, Manish Kaurav (KL3 men 200m) and Manjeet Singh (VL2 men 200m) made it to the finals of their respective events for the first time in the history of the tournament.
The International Olympic Committee does not plan any "drastic" decisions about the Tokyo 2020 Games, saying on Tuesday it remains fully committed to the event being staged in four months time despite the global spread of the coronavirus. The IOC said in a statement following discussions with international sports federations that changes would need to be made to the qualifiers due to the impact of the virus but it plans to go ahead with the July 24-Aug 9 Olympics.
By forcing Kenyan athletes to undergo additional drugs tests before allowing them to compete in Rio, the International Olympic Committee is trying to intimidate his countrymen, a former running champion said on Wednesday.
Neeraj Chopra is not in a mood to be bogged down under pressure and said he is only focussed on producing his best at the upcoming Asian Games in Jakarta and Palembang.
Sifan Hassan of the Netherlands broke the 23-year-old women's mile world record on Friday when she clocked four minutes 12.33 seconds in a race dedicated to former American runner Gabe Grunewald, who died from cancer last month at the age of 32.
A summary of sports events and persons who made news on Friday
Yohan Blake believes if not for Usain Bolt, he would have been the fastest man in the world.
Factbox on American Justin Gatlin who won the 100 metres gold at the World Athletics Championships on Saturday at the age of 35.
Usain Bolt is promising to let American sprinter Justin Gatlin "feel his full wrath" as he zones in on an unprecedented treble-treble of gold medals at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics.
Usain Bolt's lack of form combined with his late withdrawal from the Jamaican 100 metres national trials on Thursday have raised more doubts about the future of the world's fastest man.
Akeem Bloomfield announced himself as the latest 'next big thing' from Jamaica
As the curtains fall on another year, Rediff.com brings you all the action from the sports field that defined 2019.
Noah Lyles always wanted to be the next great sprinter after Usain Bolt retired and the 20-year-old American took a big step toward that goal with the year's fastest 100 metres at the US Championships in Iowa on Friday.
World and Olympic champion Usain Bolt powered away late in the race to win the 100 metres in 9.8 seconds at the season-closing Diamond League meeting in Brussels on Friday.
The 32-year-old Queenslander, who won Olympic 100 metres hurdles gold at the 2012 London Games and the world title in 2011 and 2017, said she had been forced into the decision by a string of injuries.
Usain Bolt returned to the scene of his triple Olympic glory and duly delivered for 60,000 camera-flashing fans as he overcame a slow start to win the 100 metres and give the London Anniversary Games the Friday finale it demanded.
Images from the World Athletics Championships in Eugene, Oregon, on Tuesday, Day 5.
Star Indian javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra has undergone an elbow surgery
US sprinter Justin Gatlin believes he is steadily catching up with Olympic and world champion Usain Bolt as the two head towards a likely showdown at the Rio de Janeiro Summer Games next year.
A summary of sports events and persons who made news on Thursday
Liu Xiang reduced his fans to tears in his home Shanghai Stadium on Sunday as China's finest athlete was given a fittingly heartfelt send-off.
'There was no pressure and I was taking it (Olympics) just like any other event. It was like I have played against these athletes before and there's no reason to worry. I was able to focus on my performance. That has helped me win gold.'
Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Thursday
American champion Tyson Gay continued his impressive buildup to next month's World championships on Thursday by winning the 100 metres at Lausanne's Athletissima Diamond League meeting in 9.79 seconds.
She threw a distance of 63.72m in the women's discus throw at the National Inter-State #Athletics Championship to punch her ticket to the Games.
Olympic 200 metres gold medallist Allyson Felix has chosen to run the 400 metres at next month's world championships, her coach told Reuters on Wednesday.
Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, the world's fastest woman, says she is looking forward to one day being lauded as 'one of the greatest' athletes.
A summary of sports events and sports persons, who made news on Thursday
The Canadian was expected to be Bolt's main rival for his 100 metres crown in the Jamaican's farewell championship but he suffered a hamstring strain in training on Monday and will miss the rest of the season.
Cape Town-born Van Niekerk is the reigning 400m world champion and he broke Michael Johnson's 17-year-old world record to win Olympic Gold in Rio de Janeiro last year.
Rediff.com has the best sports images from the events in the week gone by snapped right here...
A baffled Usain Bolt ran his worst turn ever as he barely won the 200 metres at the Adidas Grand Prix meet in a sluggish 20.29 seconds on a warm, windy day at Randall's Island in New York, on Saturday.
A summary of sports events and persons who made news on Saturday.
Triple jumper Arpinder Singh created history by becoming the first Indian to win a medal in the IAAF Continental Cup as he clinched a bronze but star javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra finished sixth with a below-par show, in Ostrava, Czech Republic, on Sunday.
Wearing a T-shirt that read "This is Paris," Messi beamed and waved at scores of fans who had come to greet him at Le Bourget airport on the outskirts of the French capital after his flight from Barcelona.
