Neeraj Chopra: Consistency is Indian star athlete's biggest quality

Let me begin with a question. How confident were you of Neeraj Chopra winning the World Championships gold? Very much, right? It wouldn’t be possible to complete a survey over the above question but one can confidently say that most of the Indians and fans were assured of Neeraj making history on Sunday in Budapest. The star athlete obviously didn’t disappoint his fans as he recorded a history-making 88.17m throw in the javelin final to become the first-ever Indian to win a World Athletics gold. With the recent landmark, Neeraj also completed the full set of clinching gold at the Olympics, Worlds, Asian Games, and Commonwealth Games and winning the Diamond League trophy.

Very rarely it happens that Indian fans are so confident of a home-grown talent living up to their expectations. Chopra has obviously spoiled us and the confidence in him stems from his freakish consistency. Throws keep getting longer It was in 2016 when Neeraj became the toast of the nation by creating history and winning the World U20 gold with an 86.8m throw. In 2018, he won the Commonwealth Games and Asian Games gold. In 2021, he hurled his spear to 87.58m to win India’s first Olympic medal in athletics and that also a gold. In 2022, he became the first Indian to win the coveted Diamond League trophy with an 88.44m throw in the final. He also won the silver at the Worlds in the same year with an 88.13m throw, thus becoming only the second Indian and first male track and field athlete to win a medal in the World Championships. In 2023, the set is complete with a gold at Worlds.

Neeraj Chopra, a world champion in every sense pic.twitter.com/CAQFmrjF5b

— Firstpost Sports (@FirstpostSports) August 28, 2023

And it’s not just about the streak of victories and the gold medals, it’s also how his performance has improved over the years. The 87.58m throw that won him the Olympic gold, considered by many as the pinnacle for an athlete, is now his 17th-best throw. Nine out of his top 10 throws have come since 2022 including his personal best of 89.94m which came at the Stockholm Diamond League on 30 June last year and is also the men’s national record for India. Neeraj also owned the previous three national records — 89.30m at the Paavo Nurmi Games in 2022, 88.07m at the Indian Grand Prix 3 in 2021, and 88.06m at the Asian Games in 2021. Why is he so good? Neeraj’s coach Dr. Klaus Bartonietz had this to say about the athlete in an interview with The Week: “The thrower’s genetics… influence his trainability for strength/speed, his nervous system (to deal with competition stress), his recovery capacity and also his social competency. This is hard to quantify. It is amazing to see how a kid from a very “normal” rural place developed in his social environment such basic skills and abilities to become a world-class athlete.” “Another interesting and worthy of mention trait of his personality is the capacity to learn, physically and academically (for example, improvement in language). In any other social-training environment, with a strong focus on decathlon (like Germany, the US, France and others), my guess is that Neeraj would have become the “king of athletes”. Neeraj has also shown great tenacity in the face of injuries to remain consistent which adds to his stature. Last year at the Worlds, Neeraj suffered a groin strain with the silver medal-winning effort that forced him to miss the 2022 Commonwealth Games. He then made a comeback to win the Diamond League trophy in Zurich. This year he started with the Doha leg of the Diamond League and finished first with an 88.67m throw before suffering a muscle injury and recovering to finish first at the Lausanne leg of the Diamond leg with an 87.66m throw. To stay fit for the Worlds, Neeraj missed the Monaco leg of the Diamond League in July.  

Neeraj Chopra- I want to thank the people of India for staying up late. This medal is for all of India. I'm Olympic champion now I'm world champion. Keep working hard in different fields. We have to make a name in the world. pic.twitter.com/JsymGj3Kwd

— jonathan selvaraj (@jon_selvaraj) August 27, 2023

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For an athlete who is so consistent, successful influential, and young, there’s a lot more to come, even if he has won all the big prizes. And he is thinking along the same lines. “I still have a lot to achieve. It’s not as if I have won all these medals so I’ll rest easy. I want to repeat this success year after year. I also want more Indians to join me on the podium. That will be fun,” Neeraj said after the world event. “I am a thrower and we throwers don’t have a finish line. So, I’ll keep going. Motivation has never been a problem for me. There is always room for improvement. My throwing can definitely get better. I wanted to give my all today too but the adductor strain was also playing on my mind.” There are Asian Games and Diamond League final to fight for this year. Next year we will have the Paris Olympics. It’s so difficult to predict the future, especially in sports, but if all goes well, one can expect more medals from Neeraj. After all, that’s the sort of confidence we have in him.