‘Make sure you finish ahead of Arshad Nadeem’: How coach motivated Sachin Yadav

India's Sachin Yadav finished fourth at World Athletics Championships (AP Photo)

Like millions of other Indians, Sachin Yadav too wanted to play cricket and be a fast bowler. Six years ago, at 19, when the young boy from Khekeda, Uttar Pradesh, decided to take up the javelin instead, his family members were worried. A less attractive sport than cricket according to them, his father, Naresh Yadav, nevertheless supported his dreams and bought him a pair of javelin spikes with borrowed money.

Now at 25, at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo, Sachin took the sporting world and the Indian circuit by storm, only narrowly missing out on the podium. With his personal best throw of 86.27 metres, the 6-foot-5-inch-tall Sachin finished fourth, behind the USA’s Curtis Thompson, who threw 86.67m. He showed tremendous consistency, constantly reaching the 85m mark — the other throws were 85.71m, 84.90m, and 85.96m.

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The men's javelin final in Tokyo was full of surprises. Neeraj Chopra, the Tokyo 2020 Olympics champion, finished off the podium for the first time in seven years. He was eighth, with a best effort of 84.03m. The Paris Olympics (2024) gold medallist, Pakistan’s Arshad Nadeem, didn't make the top eight. He finished tenth, with a best throw of 82.75m.

In a conversation with The Indian Express, Naval Singh, Sachin’s coach, revealed how he used the India-Pakistan emotions to motivate him. “I told him that come what may, make sure you finish ahead of Nadeem,” said Naval.

In the conversation, the coach described how Sachin has touched the 90m mark recently. “My target for him was 90m today,” he said. “He has thrown 90m in the practice. Though he fell short in the final, he proved that he can handle the pressure of the World Championships.”

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The podium at the event perhaps surprised many, with the veteran thrower Keshorn Walcott of Trinidad and Tobago, the London 2012 gold medallist, taking top spot with 88.16m. His fellow Caribbean athlete, Grenada’s Anderson Peters, bagged the silver with 87.38m, and Thompson, the Pan American Games champion, won the bronze. Germany’s Julian Weber, the pre-event favourite who had thrown a world-leading 91.51m in Zurich less than a month ago, could only finish fifth.

India’s athletics fraternity will now look ahead to Neeraj’s response, especially with both the Glasgow Commonwealth Games and the Nagoya Asian Games in 2026. But after this competition, some of the focus will also be on Sachin, who announced his arrival in grand style.