With Neeraj Chopra missing, THIS Indian javelin thrower will grab attention at Commonwealth Games 2022

Neeraj Chopra and DP Manu, on right. (Source: Twitter)

Even before the Commonwealth Games 2022 could begin, India received a huge blow as Neeraj Chopra was ruled out of the men's javelin throw competition due to an injury. This means the current CWG champions won't be able to win back-to-back gold medals for India in Birmingham. The fact that he was in terrific form, with a silver medal won recently at World Athletics Championships in Oregon, India will miss him at the all-imprtant CWG. However, it is also important that Neeraj recovers from the injury in time as there are many events remaining this season where he will be aiming for gold and of course, the elusive 90m mark. 

With Neeraj not being there, India's chance of clinching a gold in javelin throw may have slimmed but not to forget, there are two other candidates who may pull off a surprise. They are Rohit Yadav and DP Manu. Rohit has already become a familiar name all thanks to his participation in the World Athletics Championships 2022 where he made it till the final. The other name is Manu, who is India's fourth-best javelin thrower. He has reached this level only in a year's time, however there has been two-to-three years of building up and hardwork that has been required.  

Javelin Thrower from Karnataka Manu DP has been selected to #WorldAthleticsChampionship that will be held at Oregon, USA b/n July 15 & 24. Congrats.

Congratulations to namma Kashinath Naik, coach of Manu. Naik, coach of @Neeraj_chopra1, always makes us & entire Karnataka proud. pic.twitter.com/RsRNVFkFlX

— Dr. Narayana Gowda / __.______ ___ (@narayanagowdakc) May 21, 2022

Until the end of 2021, Manu had not even crossed the 80m mark, a benchmark you needto qualify for elite tournaments. But in 2022, the javelin thrower from Karnataka crossed the mark twice within 4 months. He threw a distance of 82.43m at the Indian Grand Prix in Thiruvananthapuran on Match 13, 2022 and then pleasantly surprised everyone by going past his previous best by almost 2ms three months later when he threw 84.35 at the 61st Inter-State Senior Athletics Championships. Since then Neeraj has thrown over 89 twice, but he still remains the fourth-best thrower in Indian behind Neeraj (89.94m), Shivpal Singh (86.23m) and Davinder Singh Kang (84.57m).  

Rohit too is a big contender but he has not been able to go past 82.54 so far. Manu has proved that he can cross the 84m mark and if any big star in the field has a bad day, he might as well seal a silver or bronze.