CHENNAI: There is no doubt that he is India’s royalty in sports. He is the ultimate rock star. One who enthuses so much excitement that the entire nation is glued to TV sets just to take a glimpse of history being enacted at the grandest of athletics stage – the World Championships final. And he threw 88.17m in his second attempt for that elusive gold. The junior world champion has rightfully claimed his throne in the seniors.
Arshad Nadeem from Pakistan bagged silver with his best attempt of 87.82m while Jakub Vadlejch from Czech Republic finished third with 86.67m throw. For the first time, three Indians finished within top-6 as Kishore Jena and DP Manu finished fifth and sixth with respective throws of 84.77m and 84.14m. Julian Weber was fourth. When Grenada’s Anderson Peters, the last edition gold medallist, was struggling to recover for the Worlds at Budapest, there was only one question that was in nation’s collective psyche – whether Olympic champion Neeraj Chopra will be India’s first World Championships gold medallist? Peters, who has had multiple 90+ throws failed to even qualify for the final in javelin.
Neeraj needed just one throw to qualify – a monstrous 88.77m was enough. What was heartening and a reflection of India’s soaring popularity in the sport is that two more Indians who joined Neeraj in the final — Manu and Jena. The result may look ludicrously easy but there were years of effort bundled into that throw. It had not been an easy last year because he started his season late, but this time he learnt from his mistake and took a shorter break. And he chose to train abroad and he and his coach Klaus Bartonietz felt it was good to train abroad so that he can focus and not get distracted with things beyond his control. So they moved places, the United Kingdom, South Africa, Turkey, Switzerland and Germany. The final was the culmination of all those hard work and sacrifices he had to make — he stayed away for home except for a couple of short breaks and had to look after his diet. The distance is not mindboggling either. He has been predicting that this could be the year when he crosses the 90m. He though fell short but became the first Indian to win a gold medal at the Worlds.
Learning from mistakes is Neeraj’s asset. Even during the qualifiers he had said that he did not want to make the same mistake he had done in London Worlds in 2017. “This year our focus will be on the world championships,” he told this newspaper before the season.
Parul qualifies for Paris
Meanwhile, Parul Chaudhary finished 11th in the 3000m Steeplechase final with a national record of 9.15:31s on Sunday. With this performance, Parul qualified for the 2024 Paris Olympics. After a stellar performance on Saturday, 4x400m men’s relay team — Muhammad Anas, Amoj Jacob, Rajesh Ramesh and Muhammad Ajmal — finished fifth in the final.