Neeraj Chopra: Good As Gold

WHEN NEERAJ CHOPRA runs, there is an air of finality about it. Perhaps, it isn’t him, but us. For his performance at Tokyo irrevo­cably transformed us into a nation of javelin enthusiasts and Chopra fan­boys and girls. There is that familiar jog at first, like the tentative steps of a fast bowler at the start of his run-up, the rapid build-up and accumulation of power, and then that big wide stretch of arms and legs as he launches the javelin. That run comforts and excites you, as though that javelin, cut­ting through the night sky, will land somewhere it has never done before.

At Budapest, in his second throw at the recent World Athletics Championships, the javelin had only just left his hand, when Chopra turned around and screamed into the air. We’re now familiar with that exultation. Most of us heard it first in Tokyo. Everyone had to wait for the javelin to land and for the marksmen to measure what Chopra and his fans already knew. At 88.17 metres, the night belonged to him. India’s only Olympic gold medallist in athletics was now set to become its first-ever world champion in any athletics discipline. Everyone after that throw was really just playing catch-up.

India has never had an athlete like Chopra. Two years ago, when he was heading into the Tokyo Olympics, he was really viewed as something of a dark horse at best. There were other bigger contenders in the competition, from the German Johannes Vetter, the Grenadian and then reigning world champion Anderson Peters to the Trinidadian and London 2012 gold medallist Keshorn Walcott. They all had big reputations and massive throws.

But for anyone who might have thought of Tokyo as an aberration, Chopra has actually become a better thrower. He hasn’t just been great since that performance, but astonishingly consistent. Nine of his 10 best throws have all come after Tokyo. The 87.58-metre throw that won him the Olympic gold today ranks 17 in his list of best throws. Even the 88.17-metre throw that has made him the world champion now is really just his eighth-best. His best throw of course came last year at Stockholm during the Diamond League where, with an 89.94-metre throw, he was just centimetres short of the 90-metre mark. Unlike some of his peers such as the Grenadian Anderson Peters and the Pakistani Arshad Nadeem, Chopra may not have breached the 90-metre mark yet, but he always consistently throws in the high 80s. And his best performances come in the big moments. It is said that he shows up, gauges the conditions and accurately calculates what throw he needs to make to win a medal.

It should have in fact only become tougher after the Olympics. There was the pressure to match the feat. And Chopra today isn’t just an athlete; he is also a celebrity. He has commitments now, the many shoots for brands and the many inaugurations he needs to attend. Almost everyone wants a piece of him. Yet, he has somehow managed to strike a balance—to be at places he cannot escape from, but also remain wholly in the zone and tuned in to the rigour that made him India’s biggest athlete.

India was never really big in track and field before him, and certainly not in javelin. But Chopra’s Olympic medal is already beginning to show an impact. Beside him at the World Athletics Championships in Budapest, for instance, were Kishore Jena and DP Manu, who with 84.77 metres and 84.14 metres, respectively, took the fifth and sixth spots.

Where will Chopra go from here? He already possesses all the big titles in javelin—from a gold medal at the Olympics, now the World Athletics Championships, and a Diamond League title. He has also won golds at the Asian Games, Commonwealth Games and Asian Championships. To Chopra, as he said in a recent press interaction, “there is no finish line” for javelin throwers. “I may have won a lot of medals but the motivation is to throw farther and farther,” he said.

For India, winning a medal at the Olympics is a glorious end by itself. But Chopra is teaching us to dream bigger.

About The Author

Lhendup G Bhutia

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