"Matter Of Time...": Bio-Mechanics Expert Reveals Secret Behind Success Of Neeraj Chopra

It was only a matter of time before Neeraj Chopra broke through the elusive 90m barrier, according to his former coach Klaus Bartonietz, who described the double Olympic medallist as a highly attentive and creative athlete constantly seeking to refine and improve his craft. Chopra opened his season in stunning fashion as he sent his spear to 90.23m in the Diamond League in Doha last week to finally enter the elusive 90m club. "It was just a matter of time (that he would breach the 90m mark)," Bartonietz told PTI when asked about his former ward's latest achievement.

Chopra and Bartonietz, a German bio-mechanics expert, shared a highly fruitful five-year partnership during which the Indian javelin star collected a host of accolades, including a historic Olympic gold at Tokyo and a silver at the Paris Games last year.

"Neeraj is a very responsive athlete, very attentive, and trustful. That trust places a responsibility on you as a coach to always be at your best," Bartonietz said.

"But on the other side, he brings a lot of own mental effort into training. He is very creative towards his training in terms of looking for new exercises, looking for making the exercises more efficient, specifically for the javelin." Rather than functioning mechanically, Chopra approaches training with curiosity and initiative.

"He understands very well what the event requires. What we (coaches) want is a creative-thinking athlete, not one that just asks 'coach what we have to do today' and just walk into (training) like it's a factory, just mechanistic working." Apart from the Olympic medals, under Bartonietz, Chopra also became a World and Diamond League champion, besides becoming an Asian Games gold medallist.

The two amicably parted ways