Garry Calvert, the gentle soul who shaped Neeraj Chopra’s career, passes away at 63

When Calvert joined the squad, Neeraj was already touching close to 82m. with a little tweak in technique from Calvert, he added another 4m. And under his guidance, the star thrower created the U-20 record of 86.48m in Finland at the World Championship, and in the process won India’s first gold at Worlds.

Not surprisingly, Neeraj remains his brightest ward from India, and had spoken very highly of him, before his departure to China. “He is not like any other javelin thrower you have ever had. I have now watched Indian throwers for 30-40 years now. He has this ability to watch and reproduce, something not many can do. He had the concept of rotating even before I met him . I liked it because I have been working with athletes previously who rotate, so I brought my ideas in with what Neeraj was using,” he had told The Indian Express a couple of months ago.

Calvert, who specialised in this rotational technique (the same that Neeraj employs), had even coached former Australian pacer Mitchell Johnson before he switched to cricket. It’s not just the javelin throwers that benefited from his short stint in India. Tejaswin Shankar would have not got the opportunity to train under a world-class coach like Cliff Rovelto if it wasn’t for the Australian. When Neeraj and Tejaswin were training at the JSW facilities in Bengaluru in 2016, Calvert told Neeraj that he would like to meet the Delhi youngster.

“I went to his room and we were just talking. I told him that I was completing 12th and thinking about college admissions. He asked,‘Why don’t you try in the US?’. I didn’t know anything about the NCAA system. He patiently explained everything to me. He wrote to Rovelto, who facilitated his admission process. I will forever be indebted to him,” said Tejaswin, who is studying in Kansas State University on a four-year scholarship.

Calvert’s wards remember him as a gentle, friendly and selfless soul. At camps, both in Patiala and Bengaluru, the Australian was immensely popular among trainees and officials due to his amiable persona. “He would always greet everyone with a bright smile irrespective of who you were. He was probably the only coach who kids from other disciplines would come and talk to. I haven’t seen a better human than him,” Shivpal Singh, who was coached by Calvert, said.

Calvert’s tales of kindness are endless. Every athlete who talks about him has one thing to say. “He was very helpful.” Ravinder Singh, another former trainee, recalled how he used to help impoverished kids who used to train at camps. “Kids used to tell him that they did not have proper running shoes and he would pull out cash and dole it out to them. He was very kind to us. On our off days he used to take us out for a meal. I am deeply saddened today,” Singh added.

Very little was known about the Bendigo resident’s (a town in Victoria) life as he hardly spoke about it. He was a huge fan of fast food and kept his refrigerator stocked with fizzy drinks, according to an athlete.

But an incident that Singh recalled summed up his life’s motto: “Once an Indian coach asked him, ‘Garry, you are single, who will take care of you if you ever fall sick.’ He replied: ‘I have friend whom I’ve told, that if I ever get bedridden, just shoot me in the head because I don’t want to live such a life.’” Thankfully, Calvert didn’t have to call that friend.