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Journalism of Courage
Ever the seeker, Neeraj Chopra was already looking expectantly towards the future as everyone around him was revelling in the present. Not for him the outpouring of emotions, a big sigh or any over-the-top celebrations after doing what no other Indian, and only 24 men globally before him, had done: make the javelin travel more than 90m. 90.23, to be exact.
He might have broken the National Record — and the internet — but when, after Friday night’s Diamond League duel, he was enthusiastically asked where this would feature in his long list of achievements, Chopra looked bemused. ‘Achievement?’ he mumbled.
There was relief that the 90m questions — an irritant he could do without — would now stop. Beyond that, he was reluctant to read more into it. To him, breaching the hallowed mark was not an end. It was only the start. “Raasta mil gaya hai nabbe metre ka (I have unlocked the path to 90m),” he told RevSportz.
For three years, Chopra had been desperately trying to add 6cm to his earlier personal best of 89.94m, which he threw in Stockholm back in June 2022. On Friday, when he bettered his PB by 29cm, he had a lot going for him.
Crucially, the first time in more than a year, he was injury-free, which allowed Chopra to express himself without having to ‘fear’ about his groin. There were some subtle technical tweaks, too. When he took over as Chopra’s coach in February, Czech legend Jan Zelezny shared his observation that, at times, Chopra’s throws were a little low. He wanted the javelin to fly higher.
And then, the elements played ball too. When the javelin competition began, the wind picked up, blowing from behind the thrower’s arm. Julian Weber, the German who also crossed the 90m mark for the first time in his career to win the Doha leg of the league, told the World Athletics: “The conditions here in Doha with the backwind are great for us javelin throwers. If you make the right adjustments and throw a little higher, it just flies great.”
Chopra, who had been hyping up the conditions in the Qatari capital from the time he landed there, admitted that the ‘wind helped’ and the ‘hot weather (it was 30-plus degrees) was good for throwing hard’.
It is a striking coincidence that the two times an athlete with a 90-plus throw has finished second in an international competition in the last 34 years — since Kimmo Kinnunen first crossed the mark in 1991 — have both been at the Suhaim bin Hamad Stadium in Doha. Chopra said he could have thrown farther, but the ‘technique wasn’t perfect’, giving him more room for improvement.
For a man who, for years, maintained that result mattered and not the distance, Chopra wouldn’t trade the distance for result on this one occasion. The importance of a second place finish at a Diamond League meet — though extending his incredible run of finishing in the top two wherever he has competed since the Tokyo Olympics — pales in comparison to breaching the 90m mark.
Even though there was relentless chatter on the outside, some even questioning whether he had it in him to throw 90m, Chopra and his inner circle were never in doubt. There were moments of frustration and suffering, none more so than last year’s Paris Olympics, but even during those trying moments, Chopra did not lose his belief.
In his mind, if not for the injuries, he would have crossed this psychological barrier long ago. Talking about what worked on Friday, he said: “All the injuries are gone. I feel much better than in the last few years because I always felt something in my groin. And (because of) that I did not give my best.”
Chopra added that he has it in him to throw farther. A few more weeks with Zelezny — who has 52 90m throws to his name — and his technique will be more refined, Chopra hinted. “I am working on a few things technically,” he told RevSportz without elaborating. “It takes time to make changes to the technique. But once I broke the 88m, 89m barrier, I consistently threw those distances… So now I will try to keep throwing 90-plus metres.”
There couldn’t have been a better time for Chopra to join the exclusive 90m club. Until now, as he pocketed the Olympic and world titles, this distance wasn’t a deciding factor in major finals. But that might no longer be the case as Chopra prepares to defend his world title this September.
Arshad Nadeem, with his raw strength, keeps hurling the spear far into the other corner of the field as if it’s some cardboard prop. He remains one of the most effortless exponents of the art in an increasingly crowded field of 90-plus throwers — five out of the 11 starters on Friday had a personal best of 90+, the number increased to seven by the time the competition ended.
Chopra knew. And hence, as he admitted, he needed to find the path to 90m. Now that he’s done it once, it’ll be down to what he does best — remain consistent.
