“Finally,” he allowed himself to say as the other competitors congratulated Neeraj Chopra, the flagbearer of India’s Olympic sport, on his entry into the exclusive 90m Club. The man who wears national pride on his heart gave his fellow Indians much reason to cheer as he breached the barrier with a 90.23m effort in the Doha Diamond League in the Qatar capital on Friday.
Parul Chaudhary became the second Indian to break a National Record when she finished sixth in the women’s 3000m Steeplechase, clocking 9:13.39, improving on her own mark of 9:15.31 set in the World Athletics Championships in Budapest in August 2023. But it was Neeraj Chopra who claimed the largest share of the spotlight by crossing a barrier.
Finally, he ensured that sports writers would stop asking him that one question as it if were the be all and end all of Javelin throwing. It was a question that would pop up before he settled down in his chair at a press interaction. It happened so often that he started pre-empting the question by bringing it up himself in his inimitable, disarming manner.
He had made Indians realise the existence of the 90m mark and long for it and even romance it. It did not seem to matter to a vast majority that no Indian had thrown the Javelin past 80m until February 2016 when Neeraj Chopra came up with an 82.23m effort in the South Asian Games in Guwahati. Everyone with even a passing interest in sport wanted him to get to 90m.
Having worked with Australian and German coaches for close to a decade, Neeraj Chopra’s switch to Czech star Jan Zelezny seems to have worked well. “I feel very good that Jan Zelezny is my coach now and we worked very hard in South Africa,” Neeraj Chopra told the Diamond League website.
“We still work on few points and still learning some things. Normally, he does not go to the Diamond League meets, but he came with me because he told me that today is the day to achieve 90m,” the Indian ace said, indicating that with no distractions and the right preparation, his confidence was high.
Indeed, he would have no time on Friday evening to reflect on his throws over 89m. At Stockholm in Sweden in nearly three years ago, he fell a tantalizing 6cm short of the mark. A couple of weeks earlier, at the Paavo Nurmi Games in Turku, Finland, he experienced the joy of breaching 89m for the first time in his life.
There was a sense of excitement and anticipation when he started Friday’s competition with an 88.94m effort for world lead early in this outdoor season. It appeared to be his favoured tactic of demoralising the competition with a big opening throw. But deep down, he would have known that he could ride on the rhythm and make the javelin go past the 90m arc.
His patience has stood him in good stead. It was this amazing quality that helped him deal with the pressure of expectations that was being piled on him by all and sundry. Even those who had little clue of its import. The monk in him understood that on the truly global stage, the only thing that mattered was the position on the podium. And he delivered.
He had won Olympic gold with 87.58m in Tokyo on August 7, 2021, and the World Championships crown with 88.17m in Budapest on August 27, 2023. In Tokyo, he won it with his first throw of the competition. And in the Hungarian capital, it was his first valid throw that sealed him top prize. He also won silver with 88.13m in 2022 World Championships and 89.45m in Paris 2024.
He knew that it was in meets like the Diamond League that he could possibly make everything fall in place – rhythm, speed, angle of release – to power the Javelin beyond the magic mark. That four of his six best throws until Friday night came in Diamond League competitions is a clear indication of the effort he made in these meets.
Back in 2023, he believed he had unleashed a top notch throw that could have gone past 90 in Doha but the throwers were challenged having to throw into a strong headwind that changed directions. The 90m arc beckoned the javelin but the spear dipped and marked the turf at 88.67m. The barrier continued to tease him for two years. Until Friday night.
His sense of relief was palpable, even on two-dimensional images streaming on millions of screens, big and small. And it was almost as if he had shed a massive load off his shoulders. It was heartening to see that it did not stop him from retaining his focus as he came up with an 88.20m throw on his final attempt.
On Friday night, he was able to uncork a 90m throw. Finally. German Julian Weber, who was among the first to wish Neeraj Chopra, also joined the 90m Club with an astounding 91.06m effort on his final try to get the first place. But on a night that saw him slip past the 90m mark, almost effortlessly, placings would not matter to Neeraj Chopra.
Or so we thought until he spoke with the official website. “It is a little bit of a bittersweet result,” he was quoted as saying. “I am very happy for the 90m, but this second place – it actually happened to me when I competed in Turku and in Stockholm. I threw 89.94 and I was always second. And also here. I broke the National Record and got second today.”
Ever the gentleman, Neeraj Chopra had a word of praise for Weber. “We both broke 90m for the first time today. We have been tying this for so many years, so finally, we managed to get it. I am confident that in the coming competitions, I will throw farther. I was very confident today and I expected Julian to get a massive throw. I told him that today is the day when we both can break the 90m mark,” he said.
This post was written for https://www.oneturf.news/news/neeraj-chopra-rides-confidence-to-shake-the-90m-monkey-off-his-back-in-doha
