A wry smile, a shake of the head, and a side embrace with his fellow competitors. There wouldn’t be a more muted, low-key celebration to any sporting accomplishment than this, let alone when an athlete joins an exclusive club that only a couple of dozen were a part of before Friday night.
Indeed, Neeraj Chopra roared and raised his arms in the trademark fashion as he launched the javelin into Doha’s night sky. But that he always does. The difference this time — on this balmy evening with the temperature in the low 30s and very little wind — was that the spear flew and kept flying. By the time it returned to earth, crashing into the other end of the arena, the javelin had travelled the farthest Neeraj — or any other Indian, for that matter — had ever thrown — 90.23m.
Three years after coming within 6cm of the 90m mark, Neeraj finally breached the barrier at the Doha leg of the Diamond League on Friday night. The landmark throw came on his third attempt, thus becoming only the 25th javelin thrower to cross the 90m-mark.
Neeraj Chopra joins the 90M 𝐂𝐋𝐔𝐁 🔥 👏 🇮🇳 Neeraj Chopra finally broke the 90m barrier for the first time in his career, with a throw of 90.23 at the Doha Diamond League. #NeerajChopra pic.twitter.com/zopYfa45Xk
— Doordarshan Sports (@ddsportschannel) May 16, 2025
When the scores flashed on the big screen and were announced in the stadium, Neeraj looked more relieved than happy.
That Neeraj would finish in the top two of the Doha leg of the Diamond League was taken for granted. He’s done that in every competition since the Tokyo Olympics. The only thing that mattered was if, in the new season, he’d offer something new — in other words, a throw that would cross 90m.
With the proverbial monkey now off his back, at least he wouldn’t constantly be bombarded with that one question which has haunted him wherever he has gone, sometimes even threatening to overshadow everything else he’d achieved — an Olympic gold? ‘That’s fine, but what about 90m?’ The World Championship title? ‘Alright, but when will you throw 90?’ An Olympic silver? ‘But hey, Arshad Nadeem romped to a gold with a daddy 90!’
All those days, Neeraj painstakingly explained that it was winning that mattered and not the distance. On a night when the distance he coveted became the central focus — ironically, after no one bugged him with the 90m question in the lead-up — Neeraj didn’t win. And the irony wasn’t lost on him, and Neeraj called the evening ‘bittersweet’.
That he did not win the Doha leg of the Diamond League despite the giant throw — Germany’s Julian Weber, like Neeraj, breached the 90m-mark for the first time as well; throwing a mammoth 91.06m in his final attempt to finish first — only underscores how crucial it was for the Indian to get this out of the way.
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Add Arshad Nadeem, who had given this competition a miss, to the mix, and it looks increasingly likely that the World Championships podium in Tokyo this year will be decided with 90m-plus throws.
Yet, for all the hype, unrelenting obsessing, and desperation over this feat, there was also an element of inevitability to it.
Nine months ago, after finishing second at the Paris Olympics, an anguished Neeraj was at pains to convince the world that he had it in him to hurl the spear beyond 90m. All he needed, Neeraj had said at the time, was a body that would support his endeavour and, perhaps, a few technical changes.
Circa May 2025, both things have happened.
On the eve of the year’s curtain raiser for men’s javelin, Neeraj said that the groin injury that had hindered his performances was healed. It meant he did not miss throwing sessions, the block was stronger, and the follow-through, better.
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The noticeable difference was that his block leg functioned. Earlier, Neeraj used to fall to the ground when releasing the javelin because the block leg wasn’t straight enough at that point. Consequently, he wasn’t able to put all his force into the javelin. On Friday, he looked in more control, didn’t fall over, and the release was smoother than before. And, like Neeraj had said, he gained a few centimetres.
There have been some technical tweaks, too, although the full scope of that is yet to be seen. Neeraj, who has been working with javelin legend and world record holder Jan Zelezny since February, highlighted two areas where the Czech coach suggested tweaks — the trajectory, which Zelezny said was relatively flat, and the fact that the throws landed to the left.
Zelezny knows a thing or two about throwing big distances — he has hurled the javelin more than 90m a whopping 52 times in his career. On Friday, he told Neeraj before the competition that a ‘big throw’ was around the corner.
Some of Neeraj’s throws on Friday — as well as at a practice meet in South Africa last month — were on a trajectory more towards the centre. When everything falls into place, it would add a few more centimetres, like it happened with Weber, who was just a tad bit better on the night.
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“Normally, he doesn’t come for Diamond Leagues,” Neeraj said about Zelezny. “(Before competition) he told me, ‘Today is the day’. Even after the 90m throw, he told me, ‘You can throw 2-3m more’. (But) It was just the first competition of the year.”
And he isn’t satisfied just yet. “I believe that I am ready to throw further. It’s just a beginning.”
