Column | Lone Man Standing: Where Will The Next Worldbeater Come From in Track and Field After Neeraj Chopra

Ask the average Indian sports fan about the significance of the following dates: June 25, 1983; April 2, 2011 and August 7, 2021. The first two are likely to evoke an immediate recall as landmark days in Indian cricket, but I am not too sure about the third one.

Well, it’s referred to as the National Javelin Day—a reference point of the day when Neeraj Chopra gave India its historic first Olympics medal in Tokyo 2020 and this year marked the fifth anniversary of the golden moment. A day which arguably carries greater significance than any of India’s one-day international World Cup triumphs in cricket, but is at best remembered in social media by stakeholders of athletics and stray references by the sports media.

This, in a way, shows why India is not a sporting nation yet. There is, however, no end to expectations from Chopra every time there is a major showpiece round the corner and his silver in the recent Glasgow Commonwealth Games (CWG) did raise a few eyebrows if the aura was under threat. Not many cared to find out how demanding it must have been—physically and emotionally—to pull himself back from the brink after missing out on a podium finish after nearly 2,800 days at the World Championships in Tokyo last year.

Lonely at the Top

A best throw of 85.83 metres for a silver must have felt like a gold to him as Chopra poured his heart out in an Instagram post: “There are throws that travel far, and then there are moments that carry the weight of an entire journey. The past 10 months have tested me in ways I never expected.

“Recovering from multiple injuries, rebuilding my body, finding my rhythm again, and learning to be patient when all I wanted was to compete. I was training every day without knowing if I would even have a season to compete this year.”

It’s not that the double Olympic medallist and former world champion, who has set off a javelin revolution in the country, had anything left to prove. If Chopra was ploughing a lonely furrow till his Olympics gold, there are at least five to six throwers now who regularly throw 80 metres-plus and hence are in the reckoning to make the final of any world class competition like the Olympics, Asian Games or CWG. Glasgow itself was a privy to it when Yashvir Singh claimed a bronze with 85.41 metres, while a third Indian, Rohit Yadav, finished seventh with 81.56 metres.

There are a number of other young pretenders to the throne, but it’s the phenomenal consistency of Chopra which makes him get the job done even on a bad day in office. Take the case of Sachin Yadav, who shook up the athletics fraternity with a heave of 86.27 metres to finish an impressive fourth at the last Worlds, but failed to make the cut for Glasgow this time. In the 2023 Worlds in Budapest, where Chopra became the champion, the duo of Kishore Jena and D. P. Manu were also in the final to make it an Indian threesome with Jena finishing fifth (84.77 metres) and Manu sixth (84.14). Both still continue to be funded by the Target Olympic Podium Scheme (TOPS), but truth be told, have not been able to rise to the occasion ever since.

This, of course, brings us back to the uncomfortable question: where will the next worldbeater come from in track and field after Chopra? More so with the Asian Games coming up in two months’ time and the athletes in the middle of an Olympics cycle for Los Angeles 2028. There are no clear-cut answers to this from a country of 1.4 billion, but it’s also a fact there are several interesting pointers which make us live in hope.

Silver Linings?

“We have to be patient,” says Martin Owens, the head coach of Reliance Foundation Odisha Athletics High-Performance Centre in Bhubaneswar—home to the country’s finest sprint and relay racers. Animesh Kujur and Gurindervir Singh, the two young men who made Indians believe that there could be hope in 100 metres and 200 metres by lowering the national records, are products of this academy and flattered to deceive in the chilly conditions in Glasgow.

While Kujur became the first Indian male sprinter to qualify for the Worlds last year (with a historic 10.18 sec in 100 metres and a national record of 20.32 in 200 metres), Singh raised the bar by becoming the first Indian to run a sub 10.20 sec (10.09) effort at the Federation Cup in Ranchi in May. In the CWG, Kujur ran 20.46 in 200 metres heats to finish an overall 17th, while ‘Guri’, as the turbaned runner is popular as, failed to make the semis with a poor 10.39.

Owens, however, is not unduly fazed. Speaking to Outlook over phone from the Czech Republic, the sprinters’ pit stop for training, the veteran coach in-charge of Kujur (Guri trains under James Hillier) says: “There were a number of factors which had gone against us from delivering better results. Once Glasgow slimmed down the calendar with an eye on budget, each of the disciplines were stacked up with top eight athletes—something which raised the odds.

“Animesh, given lane No. 1 in 200 metres heats, ran the fastest at the straight, but he was slower round the bend. He is someone who prefers the outer lanes like a No. 6 or 7. Guri, on the other hand, was coming out of an injury and needed more competitions before Glasgow,” says the coach. “However, if we look at the bigger picture, there have been several redeeming features and this is where we need the backing of the media. There were three finalists in javelin, medals in both long and high jumps, Gulveer’s [Singh] twin medals and three good young pole vaulters [Dev Meena, Kuldeep Kumar and Reegan Ganesh]. I am extremely hopeful of improving our tally in the Asian Games,” says Owens.

False Starts

It’s a given that with a full-fledged athletics calendar in Aichi Nagoya for the Asian Games, India should be able to match their Guangzhou tally of 29 medals (six gold, 14 silver and nine bronze). However, the performance gap is still stark when one looks at India’s timing or distances vis-à-vis the elite: as the difference typically ranges from 0.2 to 0.4 seconds in short sprints and up to several seconds in middle- and long-distance races.

Just ponder a few examples to see how it stacks up: Kujur’s erstwhile national mark of 10.18 seconds against Usain Bolt’s world record of 9.58 (approximate gap of 0.60 seconds) or in men’s 400 metres, Vishal T. K. clocked 44.98 vis-à-vis Wayde van Niekerk’s 43.03 (1.95 seconds). Such data, understandably, is not flattering and shows why India’s best chances to break the glass ceiling perhaps lies in middle distance and field events like jumps and throws.

Weighing in on the subject, Adille Sumariwalla, a long-serving former president of the Athletics Federation of India (AFI), says there were no magic recipes which can propel Indian athletes to the world level overnight. A 1980 Olympian and once holder of the 100 metres national record, he says, “The improving medals tally—be it at the CWG or the Asian Games over the editions—tells you that we are on the right track. However, there is no reason to get overexcited and start believing that we can become a major athletics power overnight.”

Explaining the rationale of growth signs in athletics, Sumariwalla says if javelin had been producing a sequence of exceptional results in recent years, it’s because at least three of the throwers had been qualifying for the big events by crossing the 80 metre-plus mark regularly. “It’s not just making the cut-offs for big events which are going to assure you medals. For example, I don’t see any medals coming in sprints in the Asiad unless they are being able to run the 100 metres in 10 seconds flat,” he says.

Glasgow reflects India’s areas of strength. The medals have come in men’s 10,000 metres and 5,000 metres (Gulveer); Sarvesh Kushare (men’s high jump); Murali Sreeshankar (men’s long jump); Praveen Chithravel and Selva Prabhu Thirumaran (men’s triple jump); Tejaswin Shankar (decathlon); Neeraj Chopra and Yashvir Singh (javelin) and Seema Kaliramna (women’s discus throw).

Long Way to Glory

The medals tally is growing at the CWG or Asian Games level, but so are the expectations, given the fact that the Union Ministry of Sports and Youth Affairs had been pulling on all stops under the TOPS programme for the past 10 years. A comparison between the medal haul from athletics between 2018 and 2022 Asian Games is telltale: while Jakarta yielded 19 (seven gold; 10 silver and two bronze), Guangzhou produced 29 (6-14-9).

Jyotirmoyee Sikdar, a Padma Shri and double gold medallist in the 1998 Bangkok Asian Games in 800 metres and 1,500 metres, feels it’s time for India to bridge the gap. “There is no doubt that things have improved as at least 25-30 athletes are meeting the qualifying mark but I am not happy with it. At the end of the day, Neeraj [Chopra] seems to be our only hope in mega events.”

A product of an underdeveloped ecosystem in the 1990s, Sikdar, who is now in the running to be the secretary of Ben­gal’s state body, says it gives her a sense of satisfaction to see the athletes’ lot being treated well and training under foreign coaches. “The government has pumped in a huge sum of money with foreign coaches looking after the athletes. The Khelo India movement is a step in the right direction. The returns should be commensurate, isn’t it?” she asks.

The job seems to have been well begun, but there are miles to go.

(Views expressed are personal)

Gautam Bhattacharyya is a former sports editor of Gulf News, Dubai

(This story appeared in Outlook magazine’s August 31 issue, 'Whose Idea of India?', in which India’s noted public intellectuals, policymakers, cultural practitioners, political leaders, scholars and economists write in detail about the idea of India they believe can best secure the nation’s future as we celebrate 80 years of independence.)