Was in pressure for the first time, says Javelin world champion Neeraj Chopra

Neeraj Chopra is an outlier in his rootedness & quest to be better than himself. He won gold at the World Championships, is an inspiration to Indians on the track & field, & is already looking ahead to the Paris Olympics.

Everyone knows Neeraj Chopra. Then again, no one really does. 

How can anyone in a nation starved for genuine sporting heroes and success on the biggest stages know a man who, at 25, has won everything there is on offer? Who made track and field fashionable among Indians and has single-handedly changed the perception of Indians not being good enough in the most global of sports? Who is an outlier as much in his rootedness despite all his achievements as in his continued quest to be better than himself even with everything he has won?

Last year, after winning silver at the 2022 edition of the World Championships, he was asked what was left and he had mentioned ‘gold at the worlds, maybe’. On Sunday night – early hours of Monday in India with the time difference – a nation stayed awake to watch him tick that one remaining box and was rewarded with the familiar roar, the raised finger to signal the big prize was his and the genial smile. 

Also Read | Neeraj emerges the king of the javelin

But it was also an unfamiliar night, as far as Chopra is concerned. He took an uncharacteristic, ever-so-slight but tentative look back to confirm what his mind already knew about his second throw; he admitted later, during a special media interaction that continued into the first morning light back home, that he was far more cautious of his adductor strain that had kept him out of action earlier this year; he mentioned the ‘pressure’ word for the first time in the context of the massively hyped contest with Pakistan’s Arshad Nadeem – second here, 35cm behind – and, for once, could not put a number on any specific target to aim for hereon.

All of which only reaffirm his place at the very top in the pantheon of Indian sporting heroes. That there is nothing left to achieve or prove to anyone, that the world is well and truly his realm and that only the third man ever to hold the World and Olympic javelin titles simultaneously – after Czech legend Jan Zelezny and Norwegian Andreas Thorkildsen – and second to also be the continental champion after Thorkidelsen – is only human, wondering ‘what next’ like everyone else.

“I was confident till the last throw that I can get a good mark but I was also being cautious, the injury was on my mind. But I am happy with the gold and hopefully in the next competitions it will be better and will train harder for Paris (Olympics),” Chopra said.