CHENNAI: There is something about Klaus Bartonietz, or so it seems. Last time when he was coaching Neeraj Chopra, his ward became the world champion (Budapest in 2023). In 2024, he began helping Trinidad and Tobago’s Keshorn Walcott. On Thursday, Walcott became the new world champion in Tokyo.
Conversations with Klaus are always illuminating and a discovery of the self. Former coach of Neeraj Chopra, he is an avid reader and loves to share his experiences. When asked what’s the secret behind his Worlds success, like a Zen Master, Klaus said there is no secret: “who does not know anything, he is talking, but who knows, he is quiet.
“The philosophy is we are coaches. We are like teachers. And there's a very wise saying that the teacher opens the door, but the athlete must step in, himself or herself. It is not what you can see sometimes… that coach pressuring and coaching, coaching and the athlete (I had some athletes) would say coach, what to do now? How I am? What I'm doing? No, that's not the way.
“You need self-understanding athletes. Thinking and knowledge and has to be creative in his own training process. I have to do this. Be creative and think. Think for yourself what's necessary. We can learn all the time. All our lives. There is no secret.”
On Thursday, when Chopra was struggling with his throws, Bartonietz was sitting next to the Indian’s new coach Jan Zelezny. However, the German bio-mechanics expert, who coached the Indian until the Paris Olympics last year, was advising Walcott. Neeraj finally finished eighth.
Klaus felt sad to see his former ward missing out on a medal. “I was sad,” he said. “He tried so hard and trained so well.” But the coach could not help but heap praise on his former ward: “He has won Olympic gold, world championships gold, Asian Games champ… everything and he is a role model.”
The association with Walcott started around October 2024 after the bio-mechanics expert left India. “His manager approached me when he heard that I am no more in India,” said the German, adding that he did not want a full-time travelling job. Earlier on, they were communicating through videos. “I said maybe a bit. I left India because I am 77 and did not want to die on the track,” he said. He recalled an incident in Patiala when a foreign coach suddenly expired. “I saw the coffin in front of my window,” he said. “Now I have more hope. I planted potatoes in April and harvested them in July when Walcott was back home for nationals.”
Klaus said he has not been travelling with Walcott like he used to with Neeraj. “I was with Walcott in Paris Diamond League, competitions in Europe like Poland and in Brussels he was alone. Then two weeks of training in Switzerland,” he said. Though he had some eight options like Germany, Finland, Sweden and even Spain.
"Only a few weeks, short time. It's not really training like earlier days. Not so hard now. Not like when we were with Neeraj all the time together."
At 32, Walcott is a senior professional and had won Olympic gold way back in 2012 London. “He can throw 90+ metres too. He had done it in 2015.”
Klaus felt the final on Thursday was also about nerves. “I learned something about bio-mechanics, how the movement works. But this is mechanics and not biology. This is not psychology. But today, you saw psychology play a role. First 87m, then 88m (by Walcott) but no one could counter. There were players who could throw like Anderson Peters or Neeraj but no one could.”
How is it coaching Walcott? Klaus said it’s same like Neeraj. “They have their own ideas, and I have to understand it, what they say in their language, in the athlete's language. I have to know their feeling. I have to translate it into me. When he says, my left shoulder dropped, then it was because the right leg did not work. The left leg didn't give support… This is why the shoulder dropped. This is what he feels…”
With another gold medal in his kitty as coach, he is a satisfied man. As of now, he would savour the moment and take it easy as life goes on.