Tokyo shows India's hopeless reliance on Neeraj Chopra to deliver every time

The morning after India’s Tokyo heartbreak with Neeraj Chopra failing to make it to the podium after seven years, thoughts swirled around how soon the javelin virtuouso would make a comeback. The champion’s ego, the spirit of the Army man in him, will certainly goad him towards what could be the odyssey of Neeraj Chopra 2.0.

It could be the most challenging phase of his career. Until now, his remarkable consistency in the last seven years seemed too good to be true. It saw a 33-tournament streak, spread over 2,566 days that he made it a habit to end with podium finishes — which include two Olympic medals, a World Championship gold, back-to-back Asian Games golds and of course the ultra-competitive Diamond League circuit. The last time Neeraj finished outside the top three was on 9 September 2018, when he finished sixth as a 20-year-old in Ostrava.

‘’Whatever has happened today, I will learn from it. I will accept it and try to do better next season,’’ an almost apologetic Neeraj said in the mixed zone in Tokyo, something he needn’t have to be. Competing with a disc problem, which the scans revealed after he sustained a back injury earlier this month during a throwing drill with the shot put while preparing for the Worlds, it would have been an easier proposition for the defending champion to pull out rather than stake his reputation. 

‘’I wasn’t sure if I would be able to compete in Tokyo. But still, we decided to go for it. I did only one session. I was able to land a good throw yesterday (he didn’t push himself beyond one throw in the qualifiers). I was hopeful of managing the situation but I was not able to do it because I was away from training. I was not feeling very healthy,’’ he added.

The only silver lining from the javelin final at the National Stadium in Tokyo was the emergence of the 23-year-old Sachin Yadav. The 6 feet 5 inch youngster from Uttar Pradesh showed a world of promise to throw 86.27 m and missed the bronze by 40 cm, but what’s even important is he bettered his previous best three times in his first final of such a major championship.

The importance of Sachin’s performance, along with that of high jumper Sarvesh Kushare (sixth place in the final) were the only two reasons to cheer about from the 19-member strong Indian camp as the Worlds winds towards a close. An underwhelming performance overall, which once again highlights how hopelessly the country is dependent on Neeraj for any piece of silverware from tournaments of this stature.

Leaving aside Neeraj who had been in a league of his own, the Indian track and field contingent’s goal in events like the Worlds and Olympics is to come up with personal bests. This is where they failed to deliver with Animesh Kujur, the fastest man in the country who breezed to a 200 m bronze in the Asian Championship in June with a national record of 20.32 sec, came up short with 20.77 to finish last in the heats of his event on Friday. ‘’I achieved all that I wanted to this long season. I came here to observe and learn,’’ said a candid Kujur.

Earlier this week, highly rated long jumper Murali Sreeshankar failed to qualify for the finals with a dismal 14th place finish in his qualification group in what is his third Worlds appearance. Sreeshankar could only produce a best of 7.78 m in his three attempts in Group A qualification round in one of his worst performances in more than three years. He ended 25th overall out of 37 competitors.

High-jumper Sarvesh, on the other hand, stood out as he became the first Indian to make the final of men’s High Jump and then came up with a personal best of 2.28 m to finish sixth.

National record holder Parul Chaudhary and Ankita Dhyani disappointed in the women’s 3000m steeplechase, finishing ninth and 11th respectively in their respective heats while an ACL injury prevented Avinash Sable from making the cut.

Unlike the 2023 Worlds in Budapest where Indian men’s 4 x 400m relay team stunned all by making it to the final, neither of the men and women’s teams could make the cut in Tokyo. This effectively meant the squad was downsized from 28 last time to 19, and it’s bound to set the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) thinking.