Looking Back: Neeraj breaks 90m barrier

Indian athletics is in transition mode. Two-time Olympics and World Championships medallist Neeraj Chopra still rules the roost but for how long? Neeraj has had a mixed season, where he cleared his biggest hurdle — the 90-metre mark. However, his below-par performance at the Tokyo World Championships gave the country a glimpse of what is in store when it comes to Indian athletics, especially in the javelin discipline.

Ever since Neeraj shot into the limelight by winning the 2016 IAAF World U20 Championships in Poland with a throw of 86.48m, the athlete from Haryana’s Khandra village had been yearning to become the first Indian javelin thrower to enter the 90m club. His dream was only realised in 2025, at the Doha Diamond League on May 16, with a throw of 90.23m. He finished second behind Julian Weber, but the milestone shut all the naysayers, once and for all.

From the highs in May, Neeraj, who was suffering from a back injury, hit the lowest ebb of his swashbuckling career at the World Championships, where he finished 8th. This was the first time in 26 tournaments when Neeraj failed to win a podium place.

At the same tournament, Sachin Yadav showed that the future of Indian javelin was in safe hands as he narrowly missed out on a medal. He finished fourth with a best throw of 86.27m. “He is capable of throwing 90m consistently. I have seen him throw 90m in training regularly. We have high hopes from him now,” an Athletics Federation of India (AFI) official said.

Gulveer Singh is another Indian athlete who has performed with a consistency that bodes well. Gulveer turned heads very early in the season when he became the first Indian to go under the 13-minute mark in the 5,000m event. Gulveer clocked 12:59.77 to also smash the Asian Indoor record and qualify for the World Championships. Although he failed to reach the final in Tokyo, Gulveer’s progression has a lot of athletics watchers excited.

Mohammed Afsal too had a stellar season. The 800m runner smashed the national mark after he clocked 1 minute, 44.93 seconds in Poland in July. Afsal also became the first Indian to go below the 1:45 mark.

Another memorable performance came from the 4x100 relay team of Gurindervir Singh, Animesh Kujur, Manikanta Hoblidhar and Amlan Borgohain who smashed the national mark that stood for 15 years after they clocked 38.69 seconds in the national open relay meet. The previous record of 38.89 seconds was set at Delhi’s 2010 Commonwealth Games.

Doping trouble

While the Indian athletics has been on the rise, regular doping and indiscipline incidents are a quick reminder of how much work is left. In the recent World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) report, India has become the No. 1 nation with 222 anti-doping rule violations (ADRVs).

Of which 26 per cent came from athletics. It is a staggering number, and a big reminder that both the federation and the National Anti-Doping Agency has a big fight to control the doping menace.

Then there is another issue of athletes using fake documents to duck under anti-doping suspension. Recently, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) began probing a case of a particular athlete who was able to generate three different Unique IDs (UID) to participate in tournaments despite serving a doping suspension.

Sachin Poswal, on a four-year suspension till 2028, was successful in hoodwinking the AFI by using fake documents, including Aadhaar cards, to take part in two Delhi state meets and the National Junior (U20) Federation Athletics Championships.

Further, a NADA volunteer, Shivam Yadav, assigned with the sample-collecting officials during a Delhi state meet, was allegedly beaten up outside the stadium by a few athletes, including international U-20 medallist Aman Chaudhary.