By Abhishek Mishra in Chennai
After a challenging phase following the Asian Games gold medal in 2023, India’s most successful women’s javelin thrower, Annu Rani has rediscovered her. From struggling to edge past the 60m mark, to clearing it like a routine practice in competitions, it tells the story of her redemption.
On Saturday at the National Senior Interstate Athletics Championship in Chennai, she stamped her authority with a first throw of 61.05m. That was enough for the Uttar Pradesh athlete to clinch gold.
Deepika, a 19-year-old from Haryana, clinched the silver with an impressive throw of 57.19m, breaking the U20 junior national record. Karishma Sanil settled for bronze.
After finding her rhythm at the International Wieslaw Maniak Memorial in Poland in the first week of this month, Annu has dominated every competition she entered. The Senior Interstate meet in Chennai marked her third successive event — after Poland and the 1st Indian Open Bronze meet in Bhubaneswar — where she crossed the 60m mark.
The first half of the 2025 season brought some disappointing results for Annu, but she has hurled the javelin over 60m on eight occasions since August.
“My life’s best performance is that I am doing well, throwing 61m in every competition. I always peak around August-September,” said the national record holder.
The World Athletics Championship scheduled in Tokyo from September 13-21 offers 36 slots to all the field events, and the Interstate meet serves as a last chance for Indian athletes to gain ranking points in the Race to Tokyo.
The seasoned thrower stands at the 28th position in the world ranking quota with 1136 points and will easily qualify for the World Championship. “My World Championship qualification has already been done through the rankings points.”
She had no plans to compete here, but as per the advice of her coaches (Sergey Markrov and Parveen), she participated at the Interstate meet to rectify errors before the Worlds.
The 32-year-old believes she is yet to peak and has reserved her best for Tokyo. “I will do my best. I’m already throwing over 60m consistently, and I am aiming to peak at the Worlds. I know that something different will happen this time.” Annu said.
Like some other top Indian athletes, Annu also finds herself isolated in the field when she competes in India, largely due to lack of competition. “There’s no competitor in India,” Annu said with disappointment. “I find it easy to win here, no matter how much I push myself here, there is still a little bit left,” she explained.
There are only three weeks for the World Championship. Annu will train in India and leave for Tokyo a few days before the competition because of being a vegetarian.
“My base has shifted to Bengaluru for training, and I will fine-tune my skills and work on my shortcomings there instead of leaving early for Tokyo. I am a complete vegetarian, so I face problems whenever I go outside India because I do not even consume eggs. Therefore, I will go 4-5 days before the competition.”
Tokyo will be her fifth World Championship. She represented India first at the Worlds in 2017 in London and she has qualified for the finals twice. She is the only woman javelin thrower from India to reach the finals. She is geared up for the grand stage once again.
Follow Revsportz for latest sports news