India’s golden boy Neeraj Chopra has always been a consistent javelin thrower, especially since his Tokyo Olympic gold, when he has never finished outside the top two in any major competition. Returning to the Japanese capital, on the same runway at National Stadium where he first showed his brilliance to global athletics fans, he arrives as the reigning world champion.
True to his trademark of “one and done”, Neeraj qualified for the final on Wednesday with a smooth first throw of 84.85m. Another Indian, Sachin Yadav, also made the final cut with a 83.67m throw to finish 10th in qualification.
The final showdown promises to be both fierce and thrilling. Unlike the last World Championships, Neeraj is not the outright favourite this time. Under his new coach, Jan Zelezny, Neeraj has finally breached the elusive 90m barrier, but there has been inconsistency in his throwing patterns. At the recently held Diamond League final in Zurich, Switzerland, Neeraj kept fans on edge with three consecutive fouls before landing an 85.01m throw on his last attempt to finish second behind Julian Weber, who delivered a world-leading throw of 91.51m.
Weber is currently in the form of his life and is the favourite and also the biggest threat to Neeraj’s title defence. Another challenge will come from Pakistan’s Arshad Nadeem, even though he struggled during the qualification as he made his return from injury. Anderson Peters, Grenada’s two-time world champion, has battled injuries and poor form the whole season, but he announced his return in style with a season’s-best throw of 89.53m – the longest in qualification. It was Peters who denied Neeraj the gold back in Eugene 2022. Another former world champion, Kenya’s Julius Yego, and the USA’s Curtis Thompson have also shown flashes of brilliance and cannot be overlooked.
For Sachin, this is the biggest opportunity to shine on the global stage. He and Arshad share a similar physique, and both have always displayed the same kind of unpredictability in their throws too. Sometimes, they start poorly before producing a big throw that takes them to the podium. That’s what we saw on Wednesday in Arshad’s case, and at the Asian Athletics Championship final, where Sachin secured silver with his last throw of 85.16m.
Neeraj has already won every major title in his career, and if he successfully defends his crown, he will become the first javelin thrower from Asia to achieve this historic feat. Remarkably, he has never finished off the podium at any World Athletics event, and the mission remains the same for him today.
For Sachin, the challenge will be to rise to the occasion and add another medal to India’s tally in athletics. He has the ability to stun the javelin field with a single throw.
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