This thread overviews the extraordinary performance of @Neeraj_chopra1 at Tokyo 2020 in the men’s javelin throw event - the statistics & history involved.
It describes the pathbreaking nature of the achievement, with regard to both Neeraj’s own and continental performance.
No Asian has ever won the men’s javelin gold before.
The event has been the preserve of east/central Europeans who are built like tanks. Neeraj is only the second non-white to win it after Kershorn Walcott.
In fact the magnitude of the achievement is even greater as no Asian has EVER won ANY medal in Olympic javelin throw prior to Neeraj.
Javelin has been the Monopolic domain of the Finns and other Nordics, with Germany, USSR and Hungary making up most of the rest. They also own all the best javelin brands, covered later. But that’s not all…
Neeraj is only the second ever Asian to win an Olympic throwing event, after Koji Murofushi’s 2004 hammer throw win. For several reasons, Neeraj did better - starting with the fact that he has no sporting pedigree, coming from a nation with no pedigree in javelin whatsoever.
Koji is the son of 5x Asian Games hammer throw champ Shigenobu Murofushi, and a Hungarian-Romanian competitive javelin thrower. In short, he has a huge genetic benefit that helped him be the only other Asian male winner of an Olympic throwing event.
In fact, historically, only 3 Asian men have even medaled in throwing events -
1. Koji in hammer
2. Iran’s Ehsan Hadadi silver in discus 2008
3. and now Neeraj Chopra from India.
These events are almost always dominated by Nordic/east/central Europe. No Chinese or Korean male has ever medaled in throwing sports.
In over half a century, only three men have won the javelin event with their first throw:
1. Hungarian legend Miklos Nemeth in 1976.
2. Jan Zelezny, the greater javelin thrower ever, in 1992.
3. Neeraj Chopra in 2020.
Ending the competition on first throw has been a habit for Neeraj. In fact at both #CWG2018 and #AsianGames2018 all his throws exceeded the 2nd place winner’s best throws. At #Tokyo2020 his first throw was beyond the 2nd best, and his second was even better.
This was despite the fact that the silver, bronze and 4th place winners all threw their season best throws - Neeraj finished nearly 1 meter ahead of them.
Fancied Johannes Vetter, the greatest modern thrower, struggled, after stating: Neeraj Chopra is good but tough for him to beat me.
https://indianexpress.com/article/olympics/neeraj-chopra-good-tough-to-beat-me-johannes-vetter-7417025/
The Tokyo games were affected by rain and winds. Planning ahead, Neeraj switched from his old Nemeth (from the company started by Miklos) to the imaginatively named Nordic Valhalla javelin earlier this year:
https://www.espn.com/athletics/story/_/id/31010150/neeraj-chopra-nordic-weapon-breaker-storms-national-records
Nordic Sport (previously Sandvik) and Nemeth are the two most popular javelin brands. A Valhalla javelin retails for about Rs.80000. Technically unforgiving, it rewards perfect technique with high ability to tolerate wet/windy conditions, which prevailed on Aug 7 in Tokyo.
Even before the Olympics, Neeraj was perhaps the most accomplished Indian athlete ever - the world junior champ, junior WR holder, CWG and AG champ - all by the age of 20. At 23, he’s among the youngest ever Olympic champions.
In 2016, Neeraj won the world U20 championship with a WR breaking throw of 86.48m, which would have earned him a bronze at Rio 2016. However the junior championship was too late to serve as qualification for Rio 2016, so he could not participate. You can watch his 2016 throw here.
Neeraj is now the gold medalist in every major senior level event he has ever participated in on first attempt- AG, CWG and now OG. He won all of them on his first throw. He has never taken part in a world championship, missing 2019 due to career threatening elbow injury after which Bartonietz and a team of other specialists had to work to build Chopra from the ground up.
Bartonietz has been with Chopra through the most difficult patch the young athlete has faced in his career, an injury to his throwing arm that ruled him out of action for almost a year.
The body is a bow, the javelin an arrow. That’s what Klaus Bartonietz, an expert in biomechanics from Germany who is also one of the preeminent authorities on the javelin throw, wanted his ward Neeraj Chopra to understand. You can read more about this here.
"He is a humble athlete, not making a big noise about himself,” Bartonietz said. “Already a CWG champion, junior world record holder, but very humble. Others make a big noise about themselves, but mentally Neeraj is very strong.”
Heartiest congratulations once again to Neeraj Chopra for winning an event no Asian has ever managed, in such a stupendous manner. Kudos to everyone nurturing this once in a generation talent, and I hope there are many more in future.
Also, many congratulations to the PM of India for recognizing potential athletes, giving them the training and the confidence to win medals.
The way PM Modiji personally called to interact with each Individuals, teams and their parents, and coaches before they left for Tokyo certainly helped them understand how the nation is with them, watching, cheering and boosting their morale as they compete with the best in the world.
Modiji also personally spoke to the teams and individuals after their crucial games to wish them, congratulate them and thank them for their contribution to the sport.
India can certainly expect more medals in future as sports is being given due recognition and the money is being spent on athletes and giving them the right coaching, nutrition and equipment to train rather than being pocketed by corrupt ministers and government officials that was prevalent in Congress Party's corrupt rule. See how in 2012, the International Olympics Committee suspended Indian Olympics Association for corruption, government interference and for ignoring Olympic guidelines.
India under Modiji and BJP's corruption free governance has come a long way since the corrupt rule of Congress was ended.
You can read how much money was siphoned in the Common Wealth Game scam here.
The 2010 New Delhi Commonwealth Games (CWG) have been marred by corruption and mismanagement, which have skewed India's reputation as a nation ravaged by high levels of fraud and misuse. ... CWG scam was one of the biggest Indian scams involving rounding of Rs. 70,000 crores
The detailed preliminary findings included the award of work contracts at higher prices, poor quality assurance and management, and work contracts awarded to ineligible agencies.
Organising Committee treasurer Anil Khanna resigned from the post in the wake of allegations that his son's firm had secured a contract for laying synthetic courts at a tennis stadium.
Among the alleged corruption and defrauding of the games budget.
toilet paper rolls valued at $2 were charged at $80
$2 soap dispensers at $60
$98 mirrors at $220
$11,830 altitude training simulators at $250,190
Such was the state of Sports in India in 2010. Since the BJP coming to power in India, things have massively improved for sports in the country. You can hear about the change from Anju George here.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment