Neeraj Chopra, 12 then, kept pulling or tying up buffalo’s tails, disturbing bee hives and forcing those around to scream. In June 2016, as he sat in his room at Spala, Poland, Chopra could feel his dream of going to the Rio Olympics slip through his fingers. Early that year, the javelin thrower had thrown a personal best 82.23m for the Guwahati South Asian Games gold and had hoped to make the Olympic qualification standard (83m) comfortably. Watching him closely Gary Calvert, who had coached him to the under-20 Worlds title, realised how special Chopra was. He won the 2018 Asian Games gold in Jakarta with a national record (88.06m).

Source: The Hindu August 14, 2021 16:36 UTC