Neeraj Chopra competes within the Doha Diamond League meet.
| Photograph 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 received an Olympic medal in athletics again then.
However lengthy earlier than that, in Might 2017, Australian Gary Calvert — who had coached Neeraj to the 2016 under-20 World Championships gold with a junior World file — had informed 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 informed The Hindu then.
Calvert’s golden phrases are coming true, one after the other. In Tokyo 2021, Neeraj stunningly received India’s first-ever Olympic gold in athletics. And for the primary time India, which all the time bowed its head meekly at any time when it got here to Olympic observe and subject, completed above Nice Britain, Australia, France, Spain, Brazil and Japan within the Olympics athletics medal desk.
Neeraj received the World Championships gold in 2023 and final yr, picked his second Olympic medal — a silver — in Paris. And now that he has obtained the monkey off his again (solely 26 have achieved that because the javelin was redesigned in 1986 to make the game safer for spectators), with the 90.23m within the Diamond League in Doha on Friday night time, Neeraj’s javelin must be flying longer distances since he shall 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 informed me that at the moment is the day to attain 90m,” mentioned Neeraj in Doha on Friday night time.
Calm and composed, Neeraj virtually all the time appears to thrive beneath stress. Neeraj has additionally been lucky that he has been guided by among the world’s finest coaches — Calvert, Werner Daniels, Klaus Bartonietz and now Zelezny — and that’s serving to him obtain his potential.
What can we ask Neeraj now?
92m … or maybe 95?
Printed – Might 17, 2025 08:28 pm IST
