New Delhi: Few javelin throwers in recent history have been able to put Neeraj Chopra under pressure. Fewer still have proved to be insurmountable and only two — Arshad Nadeem at last year’s Paris Olympics and Julian Weber at Diamond League Final on Thursday — have made him look ordinary. In Zurich, Chopra appeared uncharacteristically off-colour and up until his final attempt, his four-year streak of top-two finishes looked to have run its course.
Opening with a moderate 84.35m, the 27-year-old could never really hit the top gear as his natural rhythm seemed to have deserted him. Chopra also had three fouls to his name, the most in the competition, a further affirmation of his struggles.
He eventually willed himself for a 85.01m effort in his sixth and final go, his best of the night, that pushed him a rung above Keshorn Walcott who was in the second position until then with an 84.95m effort. That late charge apart, Chopra, who is in the midst of a technical overhaul under coach Jan Zelezny, looked far from ready.
“The timing was not so good. The run-up was not so good. There is something I didn’t find today, but I still have three weeks for the World Championships, and I will try my best,” Chopra said after the event.
The writing was on the wall the moment Weber’s opening throw flew to 91.37m. Never in his illustrious career has Chopra won when his rival has gone past 90m. While he is known to dish out regular ‘one and done’ routines on big stages, he tends to struggle when the tables are turned on him. That’s not to say Chopra hasn’t delivered at the back end of the competition — he has won enough events after trailing — but only a few of those wins have required him to push his boundaries.
The 90m barrier had long weighed on him, and so when Chopra finally breached the much-awaited mark this year in Doha, expectations of it having unlocked something new in the double Olympics medallist were not out of place. But in the five competitions since, Chopra has largely operated in his comfort zone of 84-86m barring an 88.16m throw at the Paris Diamond League that fetched him the top spot.
Unlike Weber, Nadeem, and Johannes Vetter before them — all power throwers — Chopra relies on rhythm. His fluid, repeatable technique is integral to his unreal consistency, making him a genuine contender in big-ticket meets. In competitions and conditions where victory is determined by sub-90m throws, there are few who pose Chopra a threat as hitting the 87-88m range has never been a problem for him.
It gets tricky when power throwers turn up the heat. Chopra’s four best throws of his career have all been second best as competitors with better technique or power have tended to cash in on conducive throwing conditions. It happened in Paris when Nadeem’s opening burst put him under immense pressure, and a year later in Zurich, Weber decided to do an encore. Even in Doha, when Chopra had finally gone past 90m, Weber had responded with 91.06m to take the podium. With the World Championships only a fortnight away, the prolific German has found a knack to go big.
Weber already has three best throws of the year — 91.51m and 91.37m in Zurich to go with his 91.06m in Doha — and has won nine of the ten competitions he has featured in. He also leads Chopra 2-1 this year.
“At major championships, gold is more important than the distance. I will try my best to win the medal (in Tokyo),” Chopra said. It’s a philosophy he has steadfastly stood by, but in a year that has seen three new entrants to the 90m club — Chopra, Weber, and Brazilian Luiz Mauricio Da Silva — the 86-88m range may not be all that safe anymore.
“This was not too bad, but we are getting very close to the World Championships. I still need to throw a little bit farther. There were a few things that went well, but there were things that did not go that well,” the reigning world champion noted. The fiercely competitive athlete that he is, Chopra would be feeling the heat. With Anderson Peters, Nadeem and Weber all capable of bringing out a 90m throw at any stage, the onus is well and truly on Chopra to defend his world title in a city where his date with history truly began.
