ROCKETMAN IN NEW ORBIT

India’s first Olympic medallist in track & field Neeraj Chopra says he was going for a Games record, but then thought a gold was good enough

The night before his big day, Neeraj Chopra could hardly sleep. He was excited, eager, a bundle of nervous energy. He wanted to rush to the Olympic Stadium, stand there on the runway with his javelin, feel the spear in his hand, start running, start throwing.

“I felt as if my body was in flames,” Chopra said later. “There was so much energy in me.”

He had been feeling this way ever since he threw 85.65m in the qualifying on August 4, the kind of feeling that tells an athlete that his big moment is close.

“A real good feeling. My qualifying throw was very relaxed,” said Chopra. “The next two days in training I felt so good that I believed on this day I’m going to improve on my personal best.”

So, on the day of the javelin throw final, the penultimate day of Tokyo 2020, Chopra woke up at 5:30am without meaning to, tried to sleep again but couldn’t, ate his breakfast and tried to sleep again without success, before giving up on it and spending the day visualizing his throw and his technique.

Chopra was the second person to throw in the final. He came charging in and it all clicked—the run smooth and fast, then the strong brake with his front leg, the whole energy from the run uncoiling behind it and into his throwing arm. A massive 87.03m. It immediately put the other eleven throwers under pressure.

His second throw was even better, 87.58m, and Chopra knew it immediately, roaring in joy even before the javelin had landed. “The feeling was good after the first throw and with the second throw I felt I had touched my personal best (88.07m), until the distance came,” he said.

After the first round of three throws, only Vitezslav Vesely (85.44m) from Czech Republic and Germany’s Julian Weber (85.30m) were anywhere close to Chopra. There was already a big upset— Germany’s Johannes

Vetter, the only man who has thrown over 90 metres this year with a 96.29m throw in May and whose personal best is the second best throw of all time, could not make the top eight with a throw of 82.52m.

“The first throw was important because it took the pressure off him and it meant straightaway he was leading,” said

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