PT Usha | Athletics Greatwhat A finish for Indian campaigns at the Olympics in Tokyo.
Neeraj Young Chopra fulfilled the dreams of athletic community who loved and the whole nation by getting our first athletic gold.
There was no doubt in my mind that he could win a medal, but won gold was a dream.
Since I first went to the Olympics in Moscow in 1980, I always dreamed of seeing an Indian win a athletic medal.
Then I approached a medal in 1984, finishing fourth with one hundredth of seconds.
I often think about it for the past 35 years.
Athletics are after all the mothers of all sports and even though all the hard sports, athletics are the most difficult.
Good Milkha Singh Ji and I came fourth and it was something throughout India appreciated.
Today, Milkha Ji will be proud of Neeraj, just like me.
I always want to see an Indian win the gold Olympics.
In Kerala, we usually watch trajectory matches because athletics are very popular in our part of our world.
But this time, we had great expectations from Neeraj, so we all sat together watching Javelin’s final.
We have seen qualifications, where he is the best with just one throw.
Even though I think Neeraj has the opportunity to win gold, Johannes Vetter has become the best in the world.
But Neeraj has thrown more than 85 meters regularly.
In the final, he looked confident.
I can usually see when a athlete is in the form of peaks and I think I can see it by the way he walks around the qualification and again in the final.
I remember Neeraj since he won the World Junior Championship in Poland, when I went as a coach for several trajectory athletes.
I have seen it on another event in and out of India.
He always focuses.
He will never waste time roaming.
He will practice, rest, interact with the coach, and talk to other athletes a little, but most of the time he thinks of his event, watching videos and so on.
In his interaction, he is always easy to go, highly respect the elderly and always smile.
The perfect role model for young people.
In the athletics, he also got good exposure and he had used it well.
He practiced in Europe and other places and several coaches, from Germany, was a big star and legend in Javelin.
His victory was even more credited because he had returned from injury.