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It’s been a couple of hours since Neeraj Chopra has gone where no Indian had gone before, and as he sits down for a chat with the media back home after the medal ceremony in Budapest on Sunday night, the world champion begins by apologising for “making you wait till so late”.
Chopa talks about how happy he feels to have won the World Championships gold, and his hopes of carrying on the same way going into the 2024 Paris Olympics. But, in the same breath, with added glee in his voice, he says: “But today I’m happy because Kishore Kumar Jena gave such a good performance, his personal best. DP Manu also threw well.”
This is India’s first track & field world champion who, moments after his and Indian athletics’ greatest triumph, brings in two of his compatriots finishing fifth and sixth in the javelin final to share the spotlight.
This is India’s most decorated athlete who, moments after fitting the last golden piece in his have-it-all medal cabinet, acknowledges the Indian men’s 4x400m relay team’s captivating run to the final, and sympathises with long jumper Murali Sreeshankar and steeplechaser Avinash Sable for their below-par outings.
This is among the tallest figures in India’s sporting history who looks after his country’s fellow athletes as much as they look up to him; who gives words of advice from his vast tank of world-class proficiency as much as he picks up from others’ experiences.
In a world of larger-than-life demigods of sport, this is a modest champion for all — his fans, his colleagues, his rivals.
From the week gone by that added a watershed world champion tag to Olympic champion Chopra and hurled his status among the giants of world athletics as high as his 88.17m throw soared, the 25-year-old reflected upon a conversation he had with Sreeshankar and Sable. Despite fine form and seemingly faultless preparation behind them, both could not make the finals in Budapest.
“More than people talking, they must be feeling those things from inside,” said Chopra. “I was telling them, ‘Don’t let this competition upset you… what happened here, how you fell short, the mistakes you made, you will think of all that before you go to bed. And you have to make sure you don’t repeat those mistakes’. This will help them in future competitions.”
Chopra, too, learnt lessons from that, as he did from his experience at the Tokyo Games.
Like jumper Sreeshankar, Chopra was slotted late in the order for the qualification round. To avoid the risk of getting his muscles loose too early and tightening up later — which Chopra said happened with Sreeshankar — he timed his warm-up drills accordingly. He got the job done with his first throw. And then, for the rest of the time, could be seen speaking to Manu about what he felt could help the youngster get it done too.
Chopra also had a chat with Arshad Nadeem, his Pakistan rival breathing down his neck with an 87.82m third attempt, right after the Indian sealed his gold and Nadeem a silver. “I felt good that Arshad also threw well,” said Chopra. “He was also happy that both our countries are growing, and we are winning amid the European athletes.”
The athletes that challenge Chopra — holder of the Olympic, world, Commonwealth Games, Asian Games and Diamond League titles — also push him to continue chasing different goals and charting in his legend-defining journey. From Czech Republic’s 32-year-old bronze medallist Jakub Vadlejch, Chopra hopes to pick up the art of managing the body, knowing when to pull back and stretching his peak. Like world record holder Jan Zelezny, Chopra wants to throw well and big deep into his career, and redirect his focus lens towards that in the longer vision.
For now, world champion Chopra is happy where he is at, while taking Indian athletics along. “The biggest thing today was that I got the win and,” he added, “with me were two other Indian athletes in the top eight!”
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