Chasing Mount 90 – Sportstar

Neeraj Chopra was assured of a podium finish by the time he loaded his sixth and final attempt at the Lausanne Diamond League. However, there was still something far greater at stake.

As the javelin floated over the Stade Olympique de la Pontais, Neeraj was already indulging in his preferred routine. With his back turned to the flying neon-coloured shaft and arms spread skyward in an embrace, Neeraj was convinced he had done it. This celebration has become a common fixture during all his landmark throws, including at the Tokyo Olympics and the Budapest World Championships.

The javelin landed on the 89.49m mark, just 51 centimeters shy of 90 metres. Even though Neeraj actually needed 67 centimeters more to take first place from Anderson Peters, those 51 centimeters would have sufficed for him.

“I have left it to the Almighty. Just work hard, prepare, and give it your best; after that, whatever has to happen will happen. The 90-metre target has been talked about so much now that I have decided to let it be,” Neeraj said.

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Neeraj is India’s only Olympic medallist in athletics. He is the reigning world and Asian champion. The Diamond League crown in 2022 meant his trophy cabinet was unblemished. The 90m throw is merely a collector’s item at this point. But the heart wants what it wants, and Neeraj, too, is human after all.

While he may downplay the need to achieve the elusive 90m throw, Neeraj is still fighting a recurring groin injury as he tries to prolong his season and take a shot at it.

“The injury is fine. It usually gets worse after competition, but this time Ishan [Marwaha] bhai treated me in Paris. I would like to thank him. The final treatment will be after the season ends. There is just one month left. I will try to take care of it as much as possible and consult the doctors later,” Neeraj said.

Such is Neeraj’s artistry that a layman fails to notice the physical handicap he has been operating with. Such are his ridiculously high standards that people expect him to deliver nonetheless. In fact, two of his three personal best attempts, including the 89.45m throw at the Paris Olympics, were made while enduring the discomfort of his injury.

“I did not think for a second that I could not go that far [Arshad Nadeem’s throw of 92.97 metres]. It is not too difficult to get those two or three extra metres if you get the angle of release right. Even Arshad had a best of 90.18 before this, mine was 89.94. He got those two metres all of a sudden, and it wasn’t that I couldn’t. Again, with the groin injury, I could not push myself how I wanted to. The leg work on the runway was not the best. To make up for that, I tried to put more effort into the throw but could not get it right. I had a positive mindset at that particular point in time, so I got a good throw. Then again, the physical aspect pulled me back,” Neeraj said after his Paris Olympics silver.

Terseus Liebenberg, a javelin throw coach and biomechanics expert based in Potchefstroom, South Africa, explained how a groin injury hampers the mechanics of javelin throwing.

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“It’s quite common for javelin throwers to sustain groin injuries. There’s tremendous force placed on the body. It happens in two phases — on the penultimate stride when you are entering the final phase of the run-up, and during the throw. The lower body then moves the upper body, and you get a tremendous stretch on the groin,” Liebenberg said.

Neeraj himself admitted that a weak left leg results in his body collapsing to the left side, thereby affecting the trajectory or line of the throw. “My attempts were going inwards rather than straight in Paris. The arm speed was fine, but the line could have made a difference of a couple of metres had it gone straighter,” Neeraj said.

Neeraj is no stranger to groin issues. He was recommended surgery in 2023 before the World Championships in Eugene. In his pursuit of pushing his limits and nudging closer to greatness, he opted for a conservative approach rather than surgery.

But this season, his injury has restricted him to just five competitions, making going under the knife the only plausible permanent solution.

“I wanted to get that gold [at Worlds]; that was the only missing piece. The few sessions before the pain surfaced had been good. The doctors said that surgery is the only way to cure this.

“Had I gone for surgery, I would have been out of that World Championship and the remaining year. Plus, the recovery time for the Olympics would have been limited. Even in the off-season, we did not have enough time to recover and come back for the Olympics,” Neeraj said.

With the Olympics now out of the way, and him having the distinction of being India’s first back-to-back Olympic medallist in athletics, Neeraj can focus on his journey to return to full fitness.

He does not have to look far to see athletes who have recovered and only gone one better after undergoing surgery. His close friend and rival, Arshad, who won gold at the Paris Games with an Olympic record throw, underwent surgical intervention to treat his knee in 2023. Anderson Peters, too, underwent an operation for a knee ailment in 2019 and is now back among the upper echelons.

The Pakistani national record holder had sought the tutelage of Liebenberg to get back in shape with minor adjustments to his technique.

“Arshad had some knee problems and then also some elbow problems. He was here for five weeks. We were doing technique work and rehabilitation, making the whole body strong. It’s about strengthening the whole body. Then, it’s also about working around the injury.

“We were working with a physiotherapist and in consultation with Dr. Bajwa, his physician, who would always explain exactly what he’d like to do. We would just work around the injury,” Liebenberg said.

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Liebenberg added that with Dr. Klaus Bartonietz and Ishan Marwaha, Neeraj has a team that could make him fire on all cylinders seamlessly.

“I consider myself lucky to be with such a team. I have been with him [Klaus] since 2019. We have a good relationship; we plan things together. After Paris, we mainly discussed the lack of throwing due to the injury. He also cannot work too much on this if I do not throw,” Neeraj said.

If this version of Neeraj, the one that depends largely on his upper body strength, can nearly crack 90 metres, then surely the one at the peak of his powers can sail past the mark with ease.

“ Bohot kuch hai andar, karenge agar shareer ne saath diya (There’s still plenty left in me; will throw much farther if the body holds up) ,” Neeraj quipped after relinquishing his Olympic crown. He knows this, and the world might get a glimpse of it soon.