Before 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.
But lengthy earlier than that, in May 2017, Australian Gary Calvert — who had coached Neeraj to the 2016 under-20 World Championships gold with a junior World file — had advised this author that the Indian wouldn’t simply cross 90m however would go previous 92 and even contact 95m!
“The development plan I had would have seen him do 90m in 12 months and 92 to 95m in two years. Neeraj has shown he has the capacity. He is the best talent 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 received India’s first-ever Olympic gold in athletics. And for the first time India, which at all times bowed its head meekly at any time when it got here to Olympic observe and discipline, completed above Great Britain, Australia, France, Spain, Brazil and Japan in 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 received the monkey off his again (solely 26 have finished that since the javelin was redesigned in 1986 to make the sport safer for spectators), with the 90.23m in the Diamond League in Doha on Friday evening, Neeraj’s javelin ought to be flying longer distances since he will likely 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 is 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 likely to finish among the world’s greats in the sport.
Czech World record-holder Jan Zelezny, who now coaches Neeraj, in some way had an inkling that the 90m day had arrived when he landed in Doha.
“He doesn’t normally go to the Diamond Leagues but he came with me because he told me that today is the day to achieve 90m,” stated Neeraj in Doha on Friday evening.
Calm and composed, Neeraj virtually at all times appears to thrive below stress. Neeraj has additionally been lucky that he has been guided by a few of 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?
Published – May 17, 2025 08:28 pm IST
