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Journalism of Courage
Last year’s Paris Olympics marked the first time a European male didn’t win a medal in the javelin throw at the Summer Games. An Asian 1-2, with Pakistan’s Arshad Nadeem winning gold, India’s Neeraj Chopra silver and the third place going to Grenada’s Anderson Peters. European representation started at fourth-place, Czech Republic’s Jakub Vadlejch, followed by Germany’s Julian Weber sixth. Finland’s fall as a javelin powerhouse showed too — a trio from the Nordic country taking the last three top 10 spots.
A year on from the Olympics, the responsibility of a European medal winner will fall on the broad shoulders of Germany’s Julian Weber at the World Championships in Tokyo. The 31-year-old is having the year of his life, entering the 90-metre club and winning the Diamond League Final in Zurich. He’s thrown the spear further than anybody else this year, his 91.51 metres better than Luiz Mauricio da Silva’s 91 metres and Chopra’s 90.23m.
The result at the Paris Olympics was representative of the growth of the sport outside Europe and beyond Nordic countries. This century the greater spread of medals began with Trinidad and Tobago’s Keshorn Walcott’s historic Olympic gold in 2012, the first non-European winner in 60 years. Three years later at the World Championships in Beijing Kenya’s Julius Yego became the first Kenyan to win a javelin gold. Yego’s famous story of learning to throw the javelin by watching YouTube made headlines around the world and he became an inspirational figure.
Since then other trailblazers have emerged — Chopra, Nadeem, Anderson Peters of Grenada, and so have stars from non-traditional javelin nations, like Da Silva from Brazil and Sri Lanka’s Rumesh Tharanga Pathirage. All of them will be at qualification on Wednesday, so will three other Indians, Sachin Yadav, Rohit Yadav and Yash Vir Singh.
Like Chopra, there is a lot of hope riding on Weber’s fortunes. Two years ago, Germany finished medal-less at the Budapest World Championships and Weber was fourth, behind Chopra, Nadeem and Vadlejch. Last week, Weber had told this paper being an experienced athlete, he ‘knows how to handle the pressure’.
He had also spoken about the change from European dominance. “There’s so many great javelin throwers all around the world, like from Grenada, Trinidad and Tobago, India, Pakistan and Kenya. And it’s really nice. It’s probably one of the most international disciplines. It’s nice to see that javelin throw is getting bigger all around the world. And especially in India, it has gotten really big with Neeraj. I think change came a little bit because of Kenyan Julius Yego (2015 World Champion), the YouTube man… And then there was also Keshorn Walcott (from Trinidad and Tobago) winning gold at the 2012 Olympics. It’s just the evolution of the javelin throw,” Weber had told The Indian Express.
As newer countries produced stars, Finland, known as the nursery of javelin, has experienced a dip in medals at major championships in the men’s section. At the Olympic Games, the Finns have won 22 of 81 medals over the years. But their last medalist was Antti Ruuskanen, a silver at the London Olympics. At the World Championships, Finland’s last medal was in 2015, Tero Pitkamaki’s bronze medal. There are two throwers from Finland in the qualification rounds, but neither Chopra or Weber will be worried about the challenge they pose.
Chopra has had a mixed year so far. He and Weber entered the 90-metre club at the same competition, the Doha Diamond League in May. Chopra first crossed the barrier in the third round but Weber reserved his best for the last with 90.23m. He’s also chasing history because only two men have successfully defended the title of World Champion — Chopra’s current coach and world record holder Jan Zelezny in 1993 and 1995 and Peters in 2019 and 2022. If Chopra finishes on the podium, he will also become only the fourth to win three World Championship medals with only Zelezny (5) and Andreas Thorkildsen (4) with a bigger haul.
In his last competition before the World Championships, Chopra was not at his best. His 85.01 metres was good enough for second place but not a confidence-inspiring performance. His winning throws in his last five competitions — 84.14, 88.16, 85.29, 86.18, and 85.01 — indicate he’s not been able to touch the high 80s as much as he would have liked.
“Today was a hard day for me. But I still managed over 85m on my last throw. But the timing was not so good today. Run-up was not so good. There is something I didn’t find today, but I still have three weeks for the World Championships and I will try my best,” Chopra said after the event,” Chopra had said after the final in Zurich. He will have Weber and Nadeem, the Olympic Champion with one competition under his belt this season, Brazil’s Da Silva and Peters to contend with. There is enough quality in the field for another non-European podium. Unless, Weber can live up to the expectation and restore Germany’s pride.
