“I want to thank all the people of India who stayed up late…this medal is for all of India,” Neeraj Chopra said, the Indian flag draped around his shoulders, the oversized golden disc of the 2023 World Athletics Championship hung around his neck and held with both hands, a big smile plastered on his face, floppy hair kept out of his eyes by a white bandana. “I’m Olympic champion. Now I’m world champion. We have to keep working hard, in whatever field we are in, and make a name in the world.”
On August 27, 2023, Neeraj Chopra heaves the fluorescent green javelin — a measured run-up, and that masterful release where his powerful body coils and expands in near-perfect symmetry — and the Nemzeti Atlekai Kozpont in Budapest explodes in applause. There is an air of inevitability about it — Chopra signals it himself in his signature way by turning away from the javelin even as it disappears for a second above the bright lights of the stadium and raising his hands in victory — the 25-year-old from Haryana is India’s first ever world champion in Athletics.
He sneaks a quick glance back just as the javelin is at the end of its arc, watches it spear the ground — 88.17m — and roars in triumph, before falling on his knees and touching the ground in prayer.
Chopra, at 25, has won everything there is to win in Athletics — he is world champion, Olympic champion, Asian champion, Commonwealth champion, and won the Diamond League final last year. He is not just a great javelin thrower, he is fast becoming the dominant thrower of his generation, a man who doesn’t just win sometimes, but at all times, sweeping the biggest stages.
“This was the one medal that was left,” Chopra said, “now there are more competitions coming up, bigger throws to make, more effort to put in!”
The words of an athlete who is truly in love with his sport, for whom the medals are important, but not the reason why he pursues his calling.
It was a historic night at the world championships not just for Chopra and India, but also for Arshad Nadeem, who finished second with 87.82m, the first person from Pakistan to stand on the podium at the Athletics World Championships.
“I am so happy,” Nadeem said. “India and Pakistan are 1 and 2 in the world. Inshallah we will be 1 and 2 at the Olympics.”
Czech Republic’s Jakub Vadlejch, who had finished second behind Chopra at the Tokyo Olympics, won bronze here with 86.67m.
But that’s not all — Chopra was not the only Indian in the final of the men’s javelin. For the first time in Indian history, there were three competitors from the country at the Javelin finals — Odisha’s Kishore Jena and Karnataka’s DP Manu threw alongside Chopra. Jena notched his Personal Best, a 84.77m throw that put him in fifth position. Manu finished one step below with 84.14m.
“It is amazing to have three Indians in the final,” Chopra said. “Javelin was a European sport before, now it’s a global sport.”
It’s a testament to the massive wave of inspiration that Chopra has unleashed in India that only three other countries have ever managed to field more than one competitor in the men’s javelin final in the history of the Athletics World Championships — the US, Finland and Germany.
Manu, whose family grows coffee, and Jena, whose parents are also farmers, picked up the javelin late — Manu at 15, and Jena only when he was 20. They both began making leaps away from the usual, pre-Chopra standard of Indian javelin of hovering around the 70m mark after Chopra’s breakthrough 2018 season. Now they all hover above 80m. Chopra believes he will soon breach 90m. We are witnessing the birth of a sporting culture in India when it comes to the javelin.
Chopra will now head to the Asian Games in Hangzhou, China (September 19 to October 8), where again, his closest competitors will be his compatriots and neighbour and close friend Nadeem. Few will bet against Chopra winning the title though. With the Paris Olympics just around the corner (July 26–August 11, 2024), the quick turnaround may be in favour of Chopra, who can rely on his red-hot streak to continue forging history.
And he’s making it look oh so easy. At the qualifications for the World Championship final last Friday, he simply turned up at the top of his stride looking loose and relaxed, ran up, hurled the javelin with smooth, aerodynamic ease, and got the season’s best throw — 88.77m — just like that.
Then he walked out to the mixed zone, charmed everyone and the world with his warm, genuinely happy congratulatory messages to chess player R Praggnanandhaa, who was at that time battling Magnus Carlsen in the Chess World Cup final, and to the Chandrayaan-3 moon landing mission.
A champion in every fibre of his being, down to the tips of his floppy hair.
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