Being the best: Tracking Neeraj Chopra's progress over the years

Javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra is one of India's medal hopes in track & field events at Tokyo 2020. From being an obese kid in his early teens to being the most prolific track & field athlete in the country, Chopra has come a long way.

The 23-year-old athlete qualified for the Olympics with a throw of 87.86m, which bettered the qualifying mark of 85m, at an event at Potchefstroom, South Africa, in January 2020. Although the unexpected lockdown hampered his preparations, his performance in the Indian Grand Prix earlier this year, where he scored his personal best (88.07m) is a testimony that he is ready for the marquee event.

However, if one notes closely his rise to prominence has not been abrupt or meteoric. Rather, he has taken consistent leaps over the years in his quest to become one of the best in the world. Let us take a look at his best scores over the years to understand his progress.

2012

In 2012, in the National Junior Championship in Lucknow, Chopra threw 68.46m to win the gold medal. Thereby he was allowed to join the national camp for better training.

2013

Chopra improved on his distance and managed to score 69.66m in 2013 in one of the national events that were being held at Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala.

2014

After two years of rigorous training, he managed to breach the 70m mark in Patiala. Chopra was showing signs of improvement, but his progress was slow and was far from the best throwers in the country.

2015

However, in 2015 Neeraj took a quantum leap in performance. He breached the 80m mark for the first time when he threw 81.04m to win the Inter-Varsity Championship gold in Patiala.

2016

He built on his performance and scripted history by becoming the first Indian athlete to win a world junior title when he bagged gold in the U-20 World Championships in Bydgoszcz, Poland. He threw 86.48m which became a world record and it stands to date in that category.

“When the spear left my hand on that second throw, I had a feeling that this was a special throw. I don’t think I expected it to go over 86 meters but since the last couple of months, I have worked hard on my fitness, my technique and it all paid off today,” Chopra said after his performance.

2017

All eyes were on Neeraj and Davinder Singh on the second day of the Federation Cup National Senior Athletics Championships that were being held in Patiala.

Both the athletes had already qualified for the World Championship and it was being viewed as a warmup event before the international competition. Singh stunned the audience with a personal best of 83.82m. The onus was on Chopra to prove his mettle. The Haryana-born athlete smashed the meet record and registered 85.63m to win gold.

2018

In May 2018, he broke the national record at the Doha Diamond League with a throw of 87.43m. However, his best was yet to come. On August 27, he hurled a distance of 88.06m to win gold in the 2018 Asian Games breaking his own national record.

In 2019, He underwent elbow surgery in his throwing arm which prevented him from competing.

2020

Neeraj returned to the circuit in Potchefstroom, South Africa, and on his comeback, he secured his Olympic berth with an 87.86m throw on January 28.

2021

The Coronavirus pandemic forced him to stay indoors for most of 2020. Yet he showed no signs of rustiness in the Indian Grand Prix as he once again bettered his previous best by registering a distance of 88.07m.

In the Olympics, he wants to breach the 90m mark to stand a chance of finishing on the podium.

"This one is a very good group after a long time. So you have to throw post 90m and there are six-seven good throwers. Previously, there were around three-four. Therefore can't say what will be a safe throw in Tokyo. Maybe If I can throw 92m then there is a chance," Chopra observed a few months before the Olympics.

On Wednesday, he will be looking to further improve on his personal best in the qualification of the men's Javelin throw event at Tokyo 2020.