Neeraj Chopra competes within the Doha Diamond League meet.
| Picture Credit score: AFP
Earlier than the 2021 Tokyo Olympics if anybody had predicted that javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra would win an Olympic gold, he would have been laughed at. For, impartial India had by no means gained an Olympic medal in athletics again then.
However lengthy earlier than that, in Could 2017, Australian Gary Calvert — who had coached Neeraj to the 2016 under-20 World Championships gold with a junior World document — had advised this author that the Indian wouldn’t simply cross 90m however would go previous 92 and even contact 95m!
“The event plan I had would have seen him do 90m in 12 months and 92 to 95m in two years. Neeraj has proven he has the capability. He’s the very best expertise I’ve seen in 30 years,” the late Calvert had advised The Hindu then.
Calvert’s golden phrases are coming true, one after the other. In Tokyo 2021, Neeraj stunningly gained India’s first-ever Olympic gold in athletics. And for the primary time India, which at all times bowed its head meekly each time it got here to Olympic monitor and subject, completed above Nice Britain, Australia, France, Spain, Brazil and Japan within the Olympics athletics medal desk.
Neeraj gained the World Championships gold in 2023 and final 12 months, picked his second Olympic medal — a silver — in Paris. And now that he has received the monkey off his again (solely 26 have finished that for the reason that javelin was redesigned in 1986 to make the game safer for spectators), with the 90.23m within the Diamond League in Doha on Friday evening, Neeraj’s javelin ought to be flying longer distances since he can be throwing extra freely now.
That additionally ought to put a cease to the query, ‘when will that 90m come’ that popped up throughout each Neeraj interplay.
He’s the nation’s greatest-ever athlete and the legend of Neeraj ought to solely get larger from right here. The 27-year-old, the son of a farmer who was tying up buffaloes’ tails and disturbing beehives as a naughty child, is prone to end among the many world’s greats within the sport.
Czech World record-holder Jan Zelezny, who now coaches Neeraj, someway had an inkling that the 90m day had arrived when he landed in Doha.
“He doesn’t usually go to the Diamond Leagues however he got here with me as a result of he advised me that in the present day is the day to realize 90m,” mentioned Neeraj in Doha on Friday evening.
Calm and composed, Neeraj nearly at all times appears to thrive below strain. Neeraj has additionally been lucky that he has been guided by among the world’s greatest coaches — Calvert, Werner Daniels, Klaus Bartonietz and now Zelezny — and that’s serving to him obtain his potential.
What will we ask Neeraj now?
92m … or maybe 95?
Printed – Could 17, 2025 08:28 pm IST
