Meet cricket-loving Anderson Peters, who denied Neeraj Chopra gold medal at World Championships

Had Usain Bolt not become a legend that he is today, we may have seen the current world champion in men's javelin throw Anderson Peters from Grenada play cricket at some level. He was a cricket lover when he was a kid and would play in the streets. He once dreamt of bowling at 90mph looking at Brett Lees and Shoaib Akhtar. But then Bolt burst on to the international Athletics scene and it changed everything for Peters. He now wanted to sprint, just like his hero Bolt but fate had something else written for him as injury ruled him out of the sport forever. Javelin was the next best sport and it was also something easy to learn as he loved fast bowling. 

Fast bowling is in some ways very close to javelin throw in a way. It required a runup, a stop and shoulder strength to deliver the objects. When Peters saw some kids throwing javelin, he felt he could send this object farther than others. From dreaming of bowling 90mph on the cricket field, he started dreaming of throwing the javelin beyond 90m. At the World Athletics Championships final of the men's javelin, he record three throws that went beyond the 90m mark, something which India's best and Olympic champion Neeraj Chopra has not been able to achieve. Each three throws could have got him a gold as no one came near to him in the final, with Neeraj being the second best on the day with a throw of 88.13m that won him the silver. 

Neeraj and Anderson began their javelin throw careers together. They are both 24. They first burst on to the scene in 2016 Under-20 World Championships. Truth is Neeraj was better than him in all these years. He was seen as the future star of javelin throw. Peters was always behind Neeraj. At the U20 Championships in 2016, Neeraj got the gold, while Peters got the bronze. At Commonwealth Games 2018, Peters got the bronze medal while gold was yet again clinched by Neeraj. In Tokyo Olympics, Peters could not even qualify for the final while Neeraj returned with a gold medal.

But Since the Olympics, Peters have raised his game. He threw 90.31m at the Stockholm Diamond League to finish at the top, behind him was Neerah with a throw of 89.94. He had thrown 93.07m at the Doha Diamond League this year and again threw more than 90m in the World Championship finals. Neeraj is yet to cross the mark. This rivarly has intensified after the Worlds and it will be back in action when the two star athletes take on each other at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham next month.