Paris Olympics 2024: Neeraj in focus ahead of Indian athletics’ Summer Games showdown

Indian sports fans should keep Neeraj Chopra’s adductor muscle in their thoughts and prayers over the coming weeks.

The 25-year-old reigning Olympic champion in the men’s javelin throw has been battling recurring issues with his hip and groin over the past couple of years and plans to seek medical advice post the Paris Olympics.

Neeraj has competed just three times this year and opted out of competition following the Paavo Nurmi Games in Finland as a precautionary measure after his adductor began acting up again.

One hopes that the troublesome muscle just stays intact until the evening of August 8 at the Stade de Paris. By then, Neeraj will be done with his men’s javelin competition at the Paris Olympics and, hopefully, will be wearing a second Olympic medal around his neck.

India is sending 30 track and field athletes to the Paris Olympics — its largest contingent yet in any discipline — but Neeraj will be the centre of attention, regardless of his not-so-perfect build-up.

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As the only Indian athlete to win an Olympic gold medal, he remains the country’s best prospect for another podium finish.

Injury concerns aside, what’s important is how well he can cope with the pressure. At the Tokyo Games, he wasn’t anywhere near Germany’s Johannes Vetter, who was shooting 90-plus-metre throws almost at will. Neeraj entered the competition having made only the fourth-best throw of the year.

This time there is no Vetter — his season ended due to a recurring elbow injury — but Neeraj is still not the automatic favourite. His best effort this year — 88.36m — is behind that of Max Dehning (90.20m), Jakub Vadlejch (88.65m), and Julian Weber (88.37m). Vadlejch also had a win over Neeraj at the Doha Diamond League earlier this season.

It’s fair to say that the javelin competition at the Paris Games will be very evenly matched. Dehning hasn’t come close to replicating his 90m throw, while both Vadlejch and Weber are less than half a metre ahead of the Indian.

There is no shortage of challengers either further down the field, with 13 athletes crossing the 85m mark this season.

Pakistan’s Arshad Nadeem — a silver medallist at the Budapest World Championships — has taken part in only one competition this season after coming back from an injury last year and placed fourth at the Paris Diamond League with a throw of 84.21m.

Should Neeraj be anywhere close to full fitness during qualification rounds or on the day of the finals, he will always back himself to come out on top.

However, since he has to first make the finals, he will need to qualify quickly to stay injury-free for the final.

Apart from Neeraj, India will be looking to qualify as many athletes as possible into the finals of their respective events.

At the Tokyo Olympics, only two athletes — Neeraj and discus thrower Kamalpreet Kaur — made it through the heats and/or qualification rounds. This time, many more are expected to advance.

Top of the list would be 3000m steeplechaser Avinash Sable, who recently broke his own national record for the ninth time at the Paris Diamond League, clocking 8.09.91. With this time, the 29-year-old became the 10th fastest in the world this year and ninth among his potential opponents at the Olympics.

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There’s a good chance Sable might improve on his best during the heats in Paris, just like he did in Tokyo. He may also be hurting after failing to qualify for the final of the Worlds in Budapest last year, where he was caught while trying to coast in the heats. It’s unlikely he’ll make the same mistake twice.

Should Sable make the final, it would be unwise to count him out of a historic podium finish. Reigning world and Olympic champion Soufiane El Bakkali of Morocco (season’s best 8.09.40) is far from his best.

While Lamecha Girma of Ethiopia is well placed at 8.01.63, Sable will be keeping an eye on Abraham Kibiwot. The Kenyan took a surprise third place at the Budapest Worlds with a time of 8.11.98 — a time that Sable believes he can surpass.

However, Kenya has no shortage of fast runners, with 21-year-old Amos Serem (season’s best 8.02.36) also among the favourites for a podium finish in Paris.

Other Indians looking to make the finals in Paris include the men’s 4x400m relay team — comprising Rajesh Ramesh, Muhammed Anas, Muhammed Ajmal, and Amoj Jacob, who made a historic final at the 2023 World Championships while setting a new national record of 2.59.05.

This is the kind of time that could secure them an unprecedented final in Paris, even though they only clocked 3.03.23 at the Relay Worlds in the Bahamas.

While Anas and Ajmal are running close to their times from last year, Amoj has been off the boil. Both he and Rajesh will need to hit their mark.

Among the other possible finalists are Parul Chaudhary in the women’s 3000m steeplechase, women’s javelin thrower Annu Rani, men’s long jumper Jeswin Aldrin, men’s shot putter Tajinderpal Singh Toor, men’s javelin thrower Kishore Jena, and either of the men’s triple jumpers, Praveen Chithravel and Abdulla Aboobacker.

Parul qualified for the finals at the 2023 World Championships in Budapest, setting a national record — 9:15.31s. A similar performance can’t be ruled out this time.

Annu (season’s best 60.68m) may have only the 34th best throw of the year but can pull off the big throws when needed, as she did at the Asian Games last year, winning a surprise gold.

National record holder Jeswin is far from his personal best this year, with a season’s best of 7.99m, but he’s not carrying any injury concerns and will back himself to make the finals just as he did at last year’s World Championships. The same is true for both Chithravel and Aboobacker.

While the latter touched the 17m mark for the first time since the 2022 Commonwealth Games, Chithravel was just two centimetres behind at the Inter State Championships in June. Anything close to that performance should see them make the finals in Paris.

The Indian Athletics Team for Paris Olympics 2024:

Reserves

Prachi, Mijo Chacko Kurian