Neeraj sails into final, gets his shot at history
By the time Neeraj Chopra picked up his javelin, all but one in the 16-man Group A qualification round, including German favourite Johannes Vetter, were done with their first attempts. Finn Etelatalo Lassi had qualified with an 84.50m throw (the automatic qualification mark for the final was 83.5m) but Vetter had touched only 82.04m.
Chopra, with his signature hair trimmed in a fresh Olympics look, ran in hard with short steps, switched sideways for the crossovers, and hurled the javelin smoothly, breaking his momentum by landing on his hands -- a common technique to prevent the thrower from going over the line. Chopra immediately knew it was a good one.
The javelin cleared 86.65m before landing the turf, and just like that, he was through to the final. While most others were going for their second attempts, Neeraj packed his bags, ready for his date with history.
On Saturday, he will attempt to be the only Indian -man or woman -- to ever win a track & field medal at the Olympics. The 2016 world under-20 and Asian
Games champion ended up topping the qualification round -also a first for India. Vetter threw 82.08m in his second attempt, and touched 85.64m only in his the third and final throw to get the job done. Pakistan’s Nadeem Arshad, the Asian Games bronze medallist, topped the Group B competition later in with 85.16m to be placed third overall. Shivpal Singh, India’s other entry who competed in Group B, failed to qualify after efforts of 76.40m, 74.80m and 74.81m. Several top names were eliminated, world champion Anderson Peters (Grenada), 2012 London winner and 2016 Rio bronze medallist Keshorn Walcott (Trinidad), and Rio silver medallist Julius Yego (Kenya) among them.
Chopra kept an eye on his friend Vetter as he spoke to reporters. “He is a world-class thrower. I don’t know why this is happening,” he said about Vetter’s inability to get distance. “But everyone has his ways, his technique. He was throwing well in the warm-ups.” It was a hot morning in Tokyo, and before the qualification round, Vetter told Chopra the heat shouldn’t be a factor as he was from India. “I told him ‘I am coming from Sweden so it’s a bit difficult for me to adjust as well’,” Chopra laughed.
He also provided an insight into the last-minute tips that made a difference. His German coach, Klaus Bartonietz, asked him to keep his throw flatter than usual. “In the warm up throw, I was leaning to one side a bit and was not able to put all my power behind. Coach told me to follow the javelin and focus on a good release angle, or else it can be a foul. I focused on one point of the javelin. If you give more height here, it is coming down quickly.”
His season’s best, a national record 88.07m, came at this year’s Indian Grand Prix. After being frustrated by travel restrictions due to the pandemic, he finally took part in a few European meets, and trained there. “Even the few events I competed in helped. I was up against the best, so that kind of prepared me for this. I had hardly competed after my injury, so I needed to get that feeling back,” he said.
Chopra’s haircut is part of the preparation, he revealed. “I cut it short because it was disturbing me while throwing. I didn’t want to focus on arranging my hair while competing at the Olympics!”