Mr Consency: Neeraj’s streak of sustained excellence a rarity in Indian athletics | Sport-others News

Over the years, investing emotions in Neeraj Chopra’s success is even more tension-free than locking one’s savings in gold. That is due to his almost-unbelievable consency, a rare quality in Indian athletes.Numbers don’t always define greats, but they do tell a story. Chopra’s is staggering. He isn’t satisfied with one big performance, however impressive it may be, and backs it up with another time after time.Consider this: Chopra’s horic gold-medal winning dance of 87.58 metres at the Tokyo Olympics two years ago is not among his top 10 throws.
Eight of his 10 best throws have come after the Summer Games. Of these, 89.94m is the best and 88.13m the shortest. In his career, Chopra has thrown over 88 metres 10 times, over 85 metres 26 times and over 82 metres 37 times. These numbers make consency his middle name, something not always seen in Indian athletics littered with examples of stars failing to live up to the expectations on the global stage. The last time Chopra didn’t finish in the top three of a competition was nearly five years ago.

Come rain or shine or even a niggle, Chopra knows how to find the flight path to success. He started the year with his fifth-best throw ever, 88.67m to top the Doha Diamond League event. Despite not being at 100 percent during his comeback event, the Lausanne Diamond League, Chopra managed 87.66 metres. In the qualifying round for the Budapest World Championships, Chopra’s ‘easy throw’ was measured at 88.7m, his fourth-best throw ever.
What makes Chopra so good? Consency in technique is one aspect.
“Other athletes are inconsent in technique, but Chopra is more consent and consency is a great base for a thrower,” his coach Klaus Bartonietz had told this paper.
Chopra’s athleticism makes him a very flexible thrower, which means outright power is not his calling card, like Pakan’s Arshad Nadeem or Germany’s Johannes Vetter. The Indian ace is also blessed with elasticity, is an all-round athlete and good at sprinting, jumping and lifting. Even decathlon could have been a good career choice for the javelin star.
Another standout Chopra virtue is self-belief. When a competition begins, his physio Ishaan Marwaha says that Chopra switches on the ‘Neeraj Chopra Inside the Stadium’ button. “He is a different guy when he goes inside the stadium,” Marwaha had said about how the Olympic champion enters ‘the zone’.
With his golden arm, Chopra has inspired a generation of Indian throwers to dream big. What was considered impossible earlier is being seen as doable.
Rohit Yadav, 22, is part of a growing club of 80m-plus javelin throwers in India. He has a personal best of 83.40m. Rohit has trained overseas alongside Chopra since 2019 and says the latter’s success is rubbing off on him and other upcoming throwers. Rohit would have been at the World Championships if not for an elbow injury, which needed surgery.
“When you train next to someone like Chopra who is consent with the big throws, you believe you can do it too. I have closely seen him train and the hard work he puts in. All the big throws are a result of the way he prepares and also the experience he has gained from competing abroad. I am inspired the way he has performed in the big competitions. He isn’t an athlete who has one big throw and then the level drops. The overall quality of Indian javelin throw has improved because of him,” Rohit said.
Raising the bar
Samarjeet Singh, javelin coach at the national camp, remembers how everyone was talking about Chopra being a talented thrower when he broke the inter-university record in 2009. “I threw 75 metres and it was a big deal back then. I used to search for videos of foreign throwers and while watching them would wonder how they throw 82-85m-plus throws. Eighty metres used to be a huge mental barrier in India. Now we have a champion thrower and he seems to be getting only better,” Singh recalls.
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Kishore Kumar Jena, coached Samarjeet, was one of the three finals in the men’s javelin throw at the World Championships in Budapest. Despite the nerves of competing in his first major international championships, Jena from Odisha produced 80.55m in qualifying. DP Manu, another qualifier from Karnataka, did 81.31m.
Chopra has raised the benchmark for Indian throwers.

He had equalled Rajender Singh’s national record of 82.23m at the South Asian Games in early 2016, and has bettered the national mark half a dozen times since. The previous record of 80.72m stood for eight years before Rajender bettered it. Neeraj’s 89.94m in June last year is the current national mark.
“There was a time when the national record was 80m. Now Neeraj has taken it close to 90 metres,” Samarjeet said. “Of course, athletes receive a lot more support these days and all their needs are taken care of compared to when I used to throw. Back then good quality javelins were not easy to procure. But Neeraj’s success is what has triggered the change. Not only do young athletes believe they can throw big but they also have started to dream of medals at big events. To have a role model like Neeraj is a big boost for the next generation.”