Neeraj Chopra effect fuels world record three Indians in top six of World Championships javelin final

PTI

New Delhi, August 28

The Neeraj Chopra-inspired javelin revolution is headed in the right direction with three Indians finishing in top six of the World Championships final, unprecedented in the tournament’s history.

Javelin powerhouse Germany has had three of its competitors finishing in top eight on four occasions -- 1995, 2003, 2015, 2017 -- since the World Championships began in 1983 but never had three participants from a country ended in top six of the final.

In Budapest on Sunday, Chopra added a World Championships gold to his historic Tokyo Olympics yellow metal, while Kishore Jena and DP Manu finished fifth and sixth respectively.

It was Jena and Manu’s debut World Championships while Chopra has won a silver in the 2022 edition.

In fact, India were to have four entries as Chopra got wild card as Diamond League champion. But Rohit Yadav had to pull out of the showpiece due to an elbow surgery on his throwing arm.

Only powerhouses like Germany, USA and Finland had their three athletes in the final in the past.

“Yes, it is an unprecedented achievement,” said national athletics chief coach Radhakrishnan Nair.

Top officials of the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) are not ruling out the prospect of the country winning two medals in men’s javelin in the upcoming major championships.

After Chopra’s Tokyo feat, interest in javelin throw saw an upsurge all over the country, but more importantly, the confidence that the Indians can win medals at the major global athletics championships increased.

The country now has nine active javelin throwers who have crossed 80m, which is perhaps one of the largest pools anywhere across the world.

Chopra, Shivpal Singh, Jena, Manu, Rohit, Yash Vir Singh, Vikrant Malik, Sahil Silwal, Sachin Yadav have crossed 80 metres, while Abhishek Singh, Anuj Kalera and Abhishek Drall are closing in on the mark.

“Javelin talent in the country is vast and Chopra’s achievements have opened up the avenue for the country’s youngsters. Talent will be there in such a vast country but more than the talent, you need the motivation to excel,” Jena’s coach Samarjeet Singh Malhi told PTI.

“Chopra has shown that we Indians can win medals in athletics in world level. Earlier that confidence was lacking. So, we will have better and better results in future, that is bound to happen,” he said.

Jena threw his personal best of 84.77m, which took him to the all-time third spot among Indians behind Chopra and Shivpal Singh (PB: 86.23m).

At the grassroots level, the AFI designed a ‘Kids Javelin’ event in collaboration with a sports equipment company to make the sport safer and more accessible to the U-14 group.

The National Inter-District Junior Athletics Meet (NIDJAM) in Patna this year saw 1137 boys and 849 girls registering in U-14 the ‘Kids Javelin’ competition.

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