World Championships: Neeraj Chopra soars but Indian athletics remains stagnant

New Delhi, August 28

Neeraj Chopra continued to break new grounds as he clinched the only gold medal missing in his decorated trophy cabinet but most of his compatriots flattered to deceive once again at the World Athletics Championships.

Indian athletes have won a total of three medals at the marquee event so far, with Chopra accounting for two of those — one silver and one gold. Legendary long jumper Anju Bobby George had won a bronze in the 2003 edition.

On Sunday night, the man with the gold arm scripted history again as hurled the javelin to a distance of 88.17m to become the first Indian to win the coveted yellow metal in World Athletics Championships.

However, the men’s javelin gold is expectedly the only medal the Indian contingent takes home from Budapest. Despite reaching the finals in four events, the harsh reality is that no Indian apart from Chopra was considered a serious contender.

In the last edition, six Indians had made it to the finals. And there wasn’t much change in the number of Indians qualifying for the finals this year.

Those who reached the final included javelin throwers Chopra, DP Manu ad Kishore Jena, 3000m steeple chaser Parul Chaudhary, long jumper Jeswin Aldrin and the men’s relay team.

However, there was disappointment aplenty for the Indians this time round.

Much was expected in the long jump event. The duo of Jeswin Aldrin and Murali Sreeshankar had entered the meet as season leaders. However, the former finished 11th while the latter failed to make the final.

Similarly, 3000m steeplechaser Avinash Sable was tipped to be the one of the best Indian performers after Chopra but the national record holder bungled up his heat to crash out of the event.

“Last time was good. If you compare this time against last year, the athletes were different. We did very well in 4x400m relay and broke Asian record. New athletes came this time and they brought new hope. We will prepare very well for the Olympics,” Chopra said.

“I know how those who could not do their best this time are feeling. They prepared in the best possible way but I would like to tell them not to get disappointed because they gave their best. The only thing is they should find out the mistake and should not repeat again,” he added.

The men’s 4x400m relay team obliterating the Asian record, an unprecedented three javelin throwers finishing in the top six and Parul Chaudhary smashing the women’s 3000m steeplechase national record and qualifying for the Paris Olympics were the other bright sports in India’s otherwise mediocre performance at the World event.

Muhammed Anas Yahiya, Amoj Jacob, Muhammed Ajmal Variyathodi and Rajesh Ramesh had shattered Asian record in a stunning race, clocking 2 minute 59.05 seconds to qualify for its maiden final, where the Indians finish a creditable fifth with a time of 2:59.92.

Minutes before, Chaudhary breached the Paris qualifying mark (9:23.00) and created new national record 9:15.31s en-route her 11th place finish.

In a first, three Indians finished in top six in the men’s javelin event with Kishore Jena, who notched a personal best of 84.77m, and DP Manu (84.14m) finished fifth and sixth respectively.