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Neeraj Chopra won a gold medal at the Asian Athletics Championships in 2017. If that was any indication, surely his chances are high at the Asian Games 2018. He had thrown the javelin to a gold medal-winning distance of 85.23m at the Asian Athletics Championships in 2017 and he was just 19 at that time. He is constantly improving and recently achieved his personal best of 87.43m at Doha in May 2018.
Let us have a look at some of the names, who can give Chopra some stiff competition:
#1 Chao-Tsun Cheng
Neeraj might have a stiff competition from the Taiwanese javelin thrower, Chao-Tsun Cheng, who has a best throw of 91.36m. The Taiwanese athlete, though doesn't throw in excess of 85m that often (in fact only once in the international circuit), has the potential to throw a great distance out of blue.
He is also 24 years old (which is closer to the prime age for Javelin throwers - 27/28), that makes him much stronger than Neeraj, who is just 20. Neeraj has constantly thrown in excess of 85m (at least 5 times in the last 6 months), but he is perhaps too young to cross the 90m mark yet.
He recently overcame the Taiwanese thrower at the 2018 Savo Games at Lapinlahti, Finland and won the gold with a throw of 85.69m.
#2 The Chinese threat
Zhao Qinggang of China, who won the gold medal in the 2014 Asiad with a throw of 89.15m, is unlikely to participate in the 2018 edition of the Games. He is 33 and past his prime, hasn't thrown anything in excess of 85m in the last 3-4 years.
Chinese throwers, Liu Qizhen, Song Bin and Li Yingchang barely cross the 80m mark, so they won't be bothering Neeraj.
#3 The Japanese
Ryohei Arai of Japan, who had won a silver medal at the last Asiad, has the best of 86.83m, but he has not thrown anything close to 85m in the last couple of years. The best he has thrown in 2018 is 80.60m, while for 2017 it was 82.13m.
Yukifumi Murakami, who was placed 4th in the last Asiad, is 38 years old now. His professional career stopped in 2015.
Other contenders
Huang Shih-feng, the other athlete from Taiwan has the best of 83.82m. Neeraj has thrown much more than that in almost every outing. It has to be his bad day for him to be ousted by Huang in the medal table.
Ivan Zaytsev of Uzbekistan was the bronze medallist in the 2014 Asiad. He has the best of 85.03m, but he is 30 year old now. It has been 6 years since he threw anything in excess of 85m.
Bobur Shokirjonov of Uzbekistan has a best of 84.24m. Most of his throws, however, are sub 80m. He has not crossed 80m in 2018.
Ahmed Bader Magour of Qatar is still very young. He won the silver medal at the 2017 Asian Athletics Championships and has a best of 85.23m. His best throw in 2018 is 83.71m and he is not very consistent in throwing anything above 83m (2 throws in 2018).
Arshad Nadeem of Pakistan has a best of 80.45m, a national record in Pakistan. But it may not be a good throw at the Asian level. He is still 21 and definitely has time to improve, but no surprises can be expected from him at the 2018 Asiad, which is only 15 days away.
Complacency and misfortune
All throwers get just three throws to prove their worth to enter the final. Though Neeraj throws in excess of 80m constantly, the probability of it not happening is very low, but still, a possibility.
With 6 throws available to prove himself in the final, Neeraj is most likely to land at least one great throw -- enough for a medal spot.
Conclusion
Neeraj may not be shattering the Asian record set by Chao-Tsun Cheng (91.36m) anytime soon. But his chances at the 2018 Asiad are very high.
Consistency is Neeraj's best quality. He has far more throws in excess of 85m than anyone else participating in the 2018 Asiad. In fact, he has more throws in excess of 85m in 2018 than all other competitors combined for 2018.
Except for Chao-Tsun Cheng of Taiwan and Ahmed Bader Magour of Qatar, there is not much competition to Neeraj. If he performs at his best, he will be unstoppable.
We can surely expect a medal from him and the chances are high that it is a golden one. However, it won't be as easy as the Commonwealth Games.
