By Swastika Chowdhury
A 25-year-old from Khekeda, Uttar Pradesh, Sachin Yadav has been breaking records with his javelin spikes. He was 19-years old when he switched from playing cricket to throwing javelin about 6 years ago. Even though his family showed concerns of switching from cricket to throwing javelins, which is the lesser popular sport, his father continued to support him by borrowing money to buy him javelin spikes.
Sachin secured a remarkable fourth place at the World Athletics Championship at Tokyo, 2025 with his personal record of the highest 86.27 metres, right after the USA player Curtis Thompson who threw his spike 86.67 metres to finish at the third place. His performance remained consistent with his other throws recorded at 85.71m, 84.90m and 85. 96m.
The men’s javelin final was interesting and produced unexpected results. Ex-Olympic and world champion holder Neeraj Chopra finished at the eighth place with his best record of 84.03 metres, his first time off the podium in seven years. Arshad Nadeem, the Paris Olympics gold-medalist bagger from Pakistan finished his best throw at the tenth position at 82.75m.
In an interview with The Indian Express, Sachin’s coach, Naval Singh has told him, whatever may come, he must finish ahead of Nadeem. Naval also during the conversation said how he had targeted to be 90m throw from Sachin, as he did throw a 90m during the practice sessions. Even though he fell short during the World Championships, it showed he could handle the pressure of the game, told Naval.
The first place medal bagger was Trinidad and Tobago’s Keshorn Walcott, who also happened to be the London 2012 gold-medalist with a staggering 88.16m. Grenada’s Anderson Peters secured the second position with a silver medal with 87.38m, while Thompson earned third, winning a bronze.