When the gym at a nearby village shut down, Neeraj was forced to move to another fitness centre in Panipat, about 15 km from his village Khandra in east-central Haryana. Little did he know then that the town would change his life’s direction much the same way it had altered the course of history centuries ago.
Near the gym in Panipat, a town immortalised in medieval history as the site of three decisive battles, stood the unappetising Shivaji stadium, a magnet nonetheless for dozens of ambitious athletes from nearby villages.
Neeraj was jogging at the stadium in the winter of 2010 when he caught the eye of javelin thrower Jai Choudhary aka Jaiveer. A marginal farmer’s son, Jai comes from Binjhol, a sprawling village roughly 5km away from Neeraj’s own.
A devoted athlete, from all accounts, he was just another athlete trying to make it. He recalls how it all began. “One evening at the stadium I just asked him to throw the javelin,” Jaiveer recalls, “It travelled about 35-40m which was pretty impressive for a first-timer. What I liked more was the way he threw it. Neeraj used to be overweight those days. But his body was pretty flexible.”
Neeraj says, “I started throwing javelin after watching him. He is like my elder brother.”
As an event, javelin throw was part of the ancient Olympics. Said to evolve from the usage of spear in hunting, the sport marries strength, speed and flexibility; a sound technique its beating heart. A few exceptions aside, European athletes have lorded over the event. Forget the Olympics or the World Championship, before Neeraj, India had never won a javelin medal even at the Commonwealth Games.
Having spotted potential, Jai was keen that Neeraj commits himself to the sport. A discussion with the teenager’s family followed. They agreed. But raising resources was a challenge. Neeraj’s family owns a combined eight acres of farmland. At Khandra, the family of four brothers, 16 members in all, live in an ancestral home. They own two buffaloes and three cows.
One of the cows, relative Surendra says, produces 44 litres of milk every day. “Three of us are employed in modest private jobs. Neeraj’s involvement in sports needed us to reallocate our resources,” says Surendra. Practice javelins are priced at anywhere between Rs 15,000- 20,000. But a quality javelin used in international competitions can set you back by Rs 1 lakh or more, says Jai.
Quality sneakers with spikes used by professional athletes also cost over Rs 10,000. “We wanted to reconstruct our ancestral house. We put that idea on pause. Instead we focused our resources on Neeraj,” he says.
In 2011, a group of four athletes, including Neeraj and Jai, from Panipat shifted to Panchkula Athletics Nursery where they trained together. “Coach Naseem Ahmad supported us there,” Neeraj says. In the first next few years, he blossomed as a young athlete making a clutch of podium finishes home and abroad. It was a moment of serendipity for every Indian sports lover when he created a new record of 86.48m in the World U-20 Championships in Poland in 2016. At 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth, the javelin landed one centimetre short, 86.47m, but still won the gold.
The 1997- born Neeraj has been coached by the best: Australian Garry Calvert and two Germans, Werner Daniels, and now, the legendary Uwe Hohn. “Hohm has asked me to work on my technical deficiencies. With training, I will improve,” he says. Adds Jai, “He’s a special talent. He can throw as far as 95m.”
It’s sad that Jai’s own career was plagued by injuries. “In the 2010 nationals, I finished seventh. But I had to undergo a double surgery on my elbow and was out of action for years. Now I am back, training hard and raring to go,” says Jai, now 27.
“I want him to be fit. It would be great if we both participate in a top competition,” says Neeraj, who was to receive Rs 1.5 crore from Haryana government for the CWG gold.
Bolstered by cash rewards received earlier, Neeraj’s family is on firmer footing. A two-storeyed baithak (for guests), with six rooms, for friends and guests is getting ready. The ancestral home, though, remains to be rebuilt. A quote hangs on the wall in the drawing room: “A single idea can light up your life.” Who knows that better than Neeraj Chopra?
(A version of this article was published in April 2018 after Neeraj Chopra won the Commonwealth Games gold medal in Gold Coast, Australia. As we all know, he has since won the gold at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, and at the 2023 World Athletic Championships in Budapest)