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          Neeraj Chopra is world champion, and he's not done

          Neeraj Chopra won India's first-ever gold medal at the World Athletics Championships. Sven Hoppe/picture alliance via Getty Images
          • Anirudh Menon
          Aug 27, 2023, 10:40 PM ET

          Two quick stretches to either side, body bending like it's made of rubber. A couple of quick squats to get the legs loosened up. Fingers taking a brief moment to find the right grip around the middle of that Nordic Valhalla javelin. A quick jerk back of his bicep, stretching out the right side of his upper body. And then he starts running.

          At first gently, wavy hair bobbing up and down around a white bandana, seven short steps that gather pace as it goes on. By the eighth, his body has opened up, the stride considerably longer. In the next two steps, the javelin is by his ear as he stretches his form into a taut bow... before the tension is released in a sudden burst of studied violence, sending the Valhalla hurtling it into the Budapest sky.

          As soon it leaves his hand, he tumbles forward, before catching himself, turning and letting out a great roar. His hands are raised high above him, clenched in a fist but for the index fingers pointing upward even as, behind him, his javelin goes and goes...

          It was just the second round of throws (of six). But he knew it: #1. Neeraj Chopra. World Champion.

          "You just know it," he said, after it was all over. "As throwers, we train so much that we get the feel... that [a particular] throw was really good."

          And wasn't it just. The officials measured it at 88.17m and that was as far as any athlete got on the night in the finals of the men's javelin at the 2023 World Athletics Championships. Neeraj had come into this competition with just this gold missing from his CV. He was Olympic Champion, Diamond League trophy winner, Commonwealth Games Champion, Asian Games Champion, Asian Championships winner, Junior World Champion. He'd won silver last year at the senior Worlds in Eugene and not been happy at all about it. "Yeah, but it's not gold," he had said then. Well, it is now.

          At 25 years old, Neeraj Chopra has completed athletics.

          India's first ever World Athletics gold wasn't straightforward, though. Not like that magnificent evening in Tokyo. His first throw had been poor ("technical problems with the attempt") and he'd fouled himself out. Around him everybody else had hit a mark with their first attempt. On top of this, he admitted to not being fully fit. "I was thinking a bit about my groin injury. I was being careful, and my speed was not 100%," he said.

          In fact, he'd participated in just three competitions all year-long, and he was up against athletes who had better season bests, some even better personal bests. Add to this mixture the immense pressure of a World Championships final ("competition-wise the Worlds is always tougher than the Olympics") and it would have been understandable if he'd felt the full weight of it all, if he'd stumbled just that bit, if he'd doubted himself.

          But Neeraj doesn't do stumbling. Or self-doubt. "It's important to believe in oneself. I always believe that I can do well till the last throw... even if others are doing well." It's a self-belief that he wears like armour; something that has seen him finish inside the top 3 in any major event he's taken part in over the last half-decade. It's the self-belief that propelled the javelin to 88.17m in his second attempt. His next four attempts would read 86.32m, 84.64m, 87.73m and 83.98m.

          Arshad Nadeem, reigning Commonwealth Games champion and practitioner of arguably the most casual technique in elite sport, pushed him to the very end, getting within 35 centimetres with a giant 87.82m throw on his third attempt. Enough to keep Neeraj honest (he was only sure he'd won when Nadeem's last throw stopped at 81.86m), but not enough to topple his friend.

          Ever the gracious competitor, he would say "I'm so happy for Neeraj bhai. India and Pakistan are #1 and #2 in the world. Insha'Allah, we will be 1-2 at the Olympics."

          Neeraj will be waiting for him in Paris too, aiming to make sure the '1' in that equation remains him. After winning Olympic gold two years ago he'd promised he wouldn't sit on his laurels. He clearly hasn't, reaching a level of consistency that an Indian athlete has rarely seen before. Now, after winning World Championships gold, he's gone and done the same thing again, made the same ol' promise.

          So what if you've completed your sport? Why not go for round two? "As they say, throwers don't have a finish line," he said. "No matter how many medals you win, there will always be the motivation that you can throw further. To win a medal does not mean we have won everything. Many athletes have won the same medal multiple times. I will push myself to win these medals again."

          You just know he will. You even know the recalibration started minutes after winning gold: "I wanted to throw more than 90m tonight," he said, a hint of disappointment stealing its way into this moment of joy. "But it needs all parts of the puzzle to be there. I couldn't put it all together this evening. Maybe next time."

          Meanwhile, a bit further behind him were compatriots Kishore Kumar Jena (fifth with a personal best of 84.77m) and DP Manu (sixth with 84.14m), incredible finishes both, their presence in the final a testament to that intangible Neeraj Chopra effect™.

          For the first time ever, a Worlds final had three Indians in the top six. For the first time ever, an Indian finished first. And that man is determined to make sure this won't be the last time the latter happens.

          You believe him completely when he says it. After all, he's Neeraj Chopra, World Champion, history maker. This is what he does.