Best talent I’ve seen in 30 years: Neeraj Chopra’s junior coach, Gary Calvert’s golden words coming true

Before the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, if anyone had predicted that javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra would win an Olympic gold, he would have been laughed at because independent India had never won an Olympic medal in athletics before that.

But long before that, in May 2017, Australian Gary Calvert – who had coached Neeraj to the 2016 under-20 World Championships gold with a junior World record – had told this writer that the Indian would not just cross 90m but would go past 92 and even touch 95m!

“The development plan I had would have seen him do 90m in 12 months and 92 to 95m in two years. Neeraj has shown he has the capacity. He is the best talent I’ve seen in 30 years,” the late Calvert had told Sportstar then.

Calvert’s golden words are coming true, one by one.

In Tokyo 2021, Neeraj won India’s first-ever Olympic gold in athletics, and for the first time, India finished above Great Britain, Australia, France, Spain, Brazil and Japan in the Olympic athletics medal table.

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Neeraj won the World Championships gold in 2023 and picked his second Olympic medal – a silver – in Paris last year. And now that he has got the 90m off his back (only 26 have done that since the javelin was redesigned in 1986 to make the sport safer for spectators), with the 90.23m in the Doha Diamond League in Doha on Friday night, Neeraj’s javelin should be flying longer distances since he will be throwing more freely now.

That also should stop the question – ‘When will that 90m come?’ that popped up during every Neeraj interaction. 

The 27-year-old, the son of a farmer who was tying up buffalo’s tails and disturbing bee hives as a naughty little kid, is likely to finish among the world’s greats in the sport.

Czech World record-holder Jan Zelenzy, who now coaches Neeraj, somehow had an inkling that the 90m day had arrived when he landed in Doha.

“He doesn’t normally go to the Diamond Leagues, but he came with me because he told me that today is the day to achieve 90m,” said Neeraj in Doha on Friday night.

The country has also been fortunate that Neeraj has been guided by some of the world’s best coaches – Calvert, Werner Daniels, Klaus Bartonietz and now Zelenzy – and that is helping him achieve his potential.

What do we ask Neeraj now?

92m … or perhaps 95?