Message from Javelin World is loud and clear for Neeraj Chopra: The line has been revised

We have re-entered the era of 90+ Mtrs. Who knows, it may get longer and longer and we may one day watch the impossible, that is, a Javelin thrown by an athlete managing the unthinkable feat of matching the 26-year-old benchmark, the WR of 98.48 M set by the greatest of them all, Jan Zelezny or the old era World mark of 104.8 M set by ex-coach and mentor of Neeraj Chopra, Uwe Hohn. 

Now in case someone warns us about coming back to the real world from the romantic future dream world of matched feat of Zelezny or Hohn, we have to remind the pragmatic critic that perhaps the first few throws in pursuit of that impossible dream have been made by Arshad Nadeem in the Paris Olympics and now Anderson Peters in Lausanne. Both have breached the 90 M mark.

Neeraj has to graduate to the 90+ zone if he has to establish an intimidating aura of invincibility about him and guarantee him an assured title in the big competitions. Injury or no injury, he has to attain that elusive 90 M mark if he aims to win big titles from now onwards. The flip side is that he has, for some inexplicable reason, never been able to breach that 90 M mark in spite of all his achievements. Let us remember that Anderson Peters has a personal best of 93.07 M that he has already achieved in 2022. Yes, achieving a personal best in training or in a low-profile event is one thing; reaching anywhere close to it in an Olympics or World Championship is a completely different thing. But as a competitor, Neeraj would be well aware of Anderson's potential and as a World Champion and Ex-Olympic Champion, he knows he can't bank on a sub 90 M throw every time to win the titles anymore.

And yes, at 26, Anderson is younger and in no hurry to fade out soon. But the positive thing is, two familiar athletes, Nadeem and Anderson, with lesser body of achievements have done so in the recent past. It's not that a 20-21-year-old young new-gen Javelin thrower has arrived on the scene with a new technique and benchmark and is ready to snatch the baton from Neeraj. That would be a huge concern for Neeraj. Both Nadeem and Anderson, in a sense, are from his batch and have been there for some time and Neeraj would be more or less aware of their technique, style and training methods to have an idea how they have brought about a significant improvement in their performances in a big competition.

The bottom line for Neeraj is, "If they could do it, so can I". The best thing is that Neeraj himself has reiterated that his focus today is on distance more than the ultimate position in which he lands up as he believes he is well capable of going much longer than his personal best of 89.94 M and if he can stretch that mark by a couple of meters, most likely, the titles and positions will be automatically taken care of. Hopefully, that determination and an injury-free stint, both during training and competition will help him not only reach the magical 90 M mark but also reset the benchmark to a level that of the Nadeems, the Andersons and the Hadlejchs will find it tough to match in foreseeable future. 

The work starts from scratch. Time to hit the drawing board, the Gym and the ground, Neeraj. Go reclaim the crowns. The Country is behind you.

By- Ambika Prasad Mahapatra