There is a pattern to how Neeraj Chopra operates at marquee international competitions. Whether it’s the Olympics, Commonwealth Games, Asian Games or the Diamond League, one can clearly see that Neeraj likes to set the pace right at the start. He gets a massive, 86-87m-plus throw in his first two attempts. The rest of the pack then chases him.
It was 87.58m in his second attempt at the Tokyo Olympics that fetched him the historic gold. After Neeraj’s humongous throw, big names like Johannes Vetter, Julian Weber and Keshorn Walcott were visibly under pressure and floundered.
