This was the medal missing from my kitty

THE DAYS AHEAD of a major competition tend to be rather mundane for Neeraj Chopra. At least that is how it appears from the outside. But, as the day of the event nears, Chopra gets into his zone.

- NEERU BHATIA

And so, on July 23, the Olympic champion threw the javelin far enough to book a place on the podium at his first World Athletics Championships, at Eugene, Oregon in the US.

Anju Bobby George, the only Indian with a podium finish at the World Championships before Chopra, was watching him from the stands. It was a 19-year wait for India; George’s long jump bronze in 2003 had put her in the history books.

At 24, Chopra has a gold each at the Asian Games, the Commonwealth Games and the Olympics, and now a silver at the worlds. He is already one of India’s greatest athletes. Unfortunately for him, though, he will not be defending his Commonwealth Games gold this time; he was ruled out with a groin injury days before the event.

His coach Klaus Bartonietz was both happy and sad about the way things panned out for Neeraj in the final. He said the organisation of the event was chaotic and his ward did not get enough time to warm up as he usually does. “Neeraj was in good shape,” Bartonietz told THE WEEK. “By his standards, the 88m throw was actually effortless. His first throw was a mess because of the organisers’ time management problems. Neeraj asked them how much time to go (he was the first to throw in the final), and he was told that time was already running! He did not get proper time to concentrate. He struggled to find his rhythm in the first two throws. I told him to get his concentration back; do his job like he did in training. It took a while before he could get this 88m. It was a great fighting effort.”