Why India needs to celebrate Neeraj Chopra even after a second-place finish in Diamond League Finals

It has been a long and demanding season for Neeraj Chopra, winner of a silver medal at the Paris 2024 Olympics. On Saturday night at the Wanda Diamond League final in Brussels, the winner of two Olympic medals in Tokyo and Paris was unable to come out tops against Anderson Peters, agonisingly finishing second, where the difference was just one centimetre.

Would you call that a close shave or bad luck, depends on the way you look at it - optimist or pessimist!

As Peters, from Grenada, threw 87.87 metres, the challenge for Neeraj was simple. But then, the blustery conditions were not going to make it so easy for all the competitors in the fray. Neeraj managed 87.86 metres, which was definitely below what he had achieved in the last Dimond League meet in Lausanne in August. His effort at that time was 89.45 metres.

The problem with those who follow athletics at home is, the numbers are not too many. More often than not, fans and even the common man wakes up at around the time of the Olympics or the Asian Games. One thing is certain, all this has been made possible by one man, Neeraj Chopra.

It was that one effort from the Haryanvi, a gold medal in the Tokyo Olympics which made people fall in love with the javelin. Today, for the Indians, the javelin and Neeraj are synonymous what with August 8 now dedicated as 'National Javelin Day.'

Yes, Neeraj has been able to fire up more athletes into taking up the javelin and believing, they, too, can become winners. If you go through the athletes who won medals at the recent Paralympics in Paris, javelin featured prominently in it.

Back to Neeraj not winning the Diamond League, since he did it in 2022, there is no reason to be disappointed. Even the gold medal winner at the Paris Olympics, Arshad Nadeem was not there. In fact, since the time Nadeem became synonymous with monstrous throws in Paris where he blew the field with two efforts in the 90-metre plus region, people have been asking why Neeraj cannot do it. He did come up with a great effort in Lausanne and also spoke of how the 90-metre thing is highly achievable. To be fair, Neeraj Chopra has never believed in just the 90 metres being the goal but winning as the first objective.

People need to understand how Neeraj has kept coming up with top-class performances in the last eight years plus, starting from the Commonwealth Games in the Gold Coast and then doing an encore in the Asian Games in Jakarta, 2018. Even during the dark days of the COVID-19 pandemic, before the Tokyo Olympics, Neeraj was training very cautiously.

It is the same caution due to a different reason he has, perhaps, not been able to go flat out in 2024. How many people nursing a groin injury will actually take the risk and train. Ask any athlete, especially a fast bowler in cricket, how tough it is to deal with the groin niggle and now he has a fracture on his left hand to deal with as well.

Neeraj so far has managed his injuries very well, not let it become the main topic. That is why when he spoke to the media after winning a silver medal at the Paris Olympics, he opened up on the injury.

Where Neeraj showed he was going to be different was in continuing to stay away from home and celebrations. To be in Europe, manage his groin under advice from the best medical people and also train, he has been phenomenal. His efforts in Brussels were the best he could churn out given his groin problem. Of course, in the Diamond League, the winner takes it all. Finishing second means nothing really, other than decent prize money. But one should not evaluate Neeraj Chopra just on the basis of just two second-place finishes in Lausanne and Brussels.

He has set the standards and made javelin popular. Can any other Indian do something similar to what Neeraj has done over these years? The answer is a 'no' since Kishore Kumar Jena has performed below par and DP Manu has vanished. A month or so before the Olympics, the NADA - National Anti Doping Agency - asked the athletics body not to consider him. More details are awaited.

At the end of a long season, Neeraj will want to rest, get his full fitness back. Surprisingly, there is no mention yet, when he will return to India. Celebrations for a silver medal in Paris 2024 have to be massive.