Bought ticket to see Neeraj in Paris: Dutch para world javelin champion Roorda

New Delhi, Sep 27 (PTI) Neeraj Chopra's fame is not limited to India, and Dutch javelin thrower Noelle Roorda, who won gold at the World Para Athletics Championships, said she even bought a ticket during the 2024 Paris Olympics just to watch him compete.

Chopra, who created history with a gold at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, followed it up with a silver at the Paris Games.

"Yes, of course. I know him," Roorda told PTI after winning the F46 women’s javelin event, a classification for athletes with moderately affected movement in one or both arms or with limb absence.

"I went to Paris to the Olympic Games and bought tickets for the javelin night there. But that was the closest I ever saw him," said the 25-year-old, who throws with her left hand as her right arm extends only up to the elbow.

Roorda, however, admitted she had expected German thrower Johannes Vetter to win the Tokyo Olympic gold instead of Chopra.

"I thought Vetter would win gold. Then Chopra on the podium definitely but Vetter was like outrageous good and he was throwing like crazy that year. But he was too good too early (peaked early). That's part of the game." Roorda, who had won a silver in the Tokyo Paralympics and a bronze in the 2024 edition of the World Para Athletics Championships in Japan, sent her spear to a personal best of 43.74m at the Jawahralal Nehru Stadium here.

Her role model in javelin, though, is another German, Thomas Rohler, who won gold in 2016 Rio Olympics but somehow on the decline in the last few years.

"I think I'm a person who loves like sort of dance around and I'm a technical like easy thrower. Thomas Rohler is the perfect example of power and speed and sort of like he's dancing around. So, I think that that made him like my role model." She said she took part in a competition-cum-training camp organised by Roehler in the German town of Jena in 2021 after the Tokyo Paralympics.

"I joined that training camp and it was very nice and the year after I went there one or twice just to train with him and his group and his coach. Yeah, he's like a big inspiring.

"It was a six-hour drive for me and I went there two years ago. I try to like pick from different athletes, and mix it all around to create my own sort of style." Target Paralympics gold ============= She said her goal in future is to win gold in Paralympics.

"I worked so hard this year. The whole season was the best of my life and to winning here is like the cherry on the cake -- 10 out of 10.

"I'm thinking of reaching the world record (some day). It's 45.73m but I am getting closer every year, and of course, the Paralympics gold." She got into javelin through talent scouting in the Netherlands.

"I first played tennis with able-bodied athletes and football earlier. There is a sort of Paralympic talent day in the Netherlands and it's every year event and that's the day where you can try all different Paralympic sports.

"I was scouted on a talent day for athletics and I first started doing long jump and 100m, but I'm not quite talented with that. And in 2018, we tried the javelin and fell in love within a second and now I'm here." Asked what aspect of javelin she likes the most, she said, "When you throw the javelin away, you can see your own performance. When you do long jump, you're in the air and you can't see yourself.

"In javelin, I can just enjoy the flight (of the spear) and everything, that's the coolest thing about javelin." A graduate, Roorda is currently doing a year's course in mathematics "just for fun".

She is also involved in an "after school programme" for the kids.

"I like mathematics and I'm doing a year's study in mathematics. It's good for me to like not being focused all the time on track and field. When you're having a bad period you have to switch your mind to something else.

"I have a sort of an after school programme. When I have a day off for example, I go there and just work there and play around with kids and play football outside." PTI PDS PDS TAP