In April 2019, just before the Asian Athletics Championship, Neeraj Chopra felt excruciating pain in his throwing arm because of three or four bone fragments in his elbow.

He had picked up the injury in late 2018. It was decided that he had to be operated upon, which meant he would miss the Asian as well as the World Athletics Championship in Doha in September 2019.

Neeraj was ready to do that since his target was the Olympic Games in Tokyo a year later. The event was later postponed by a year in March 2020 owing to the pandemic.

Neeraj had an arthroscopy procedure under surgeon Dinshaw Pardiwala in Mumbai in the first week of May 2019. “He was at the crossroads. The real challenge was the rehabilitation programme. It was lengthy but Neeraj was not impatient. His personal physio Ishaan Marwaha did a great job post-surgery and Neeraj followed his instructions to the T. For, he had only one focus. India’s first gold medal in the track and field event,” a sponsor representative, who has been associated with Neeraj since 2016, told The Telegraph. “Now, all the hard work and sacrifices he made have paid off with Neeraj winning gold. In hindsight, skipping the Doha world meet was a very good decision,” he added.

Neeraj qualified for Tokyo in January last year with a throw of 87.86 metres at the Athletics Central North East meet in Potchefstroom, South Africa.

And then Covid-19 struck, forcing Neeraj, like many athletes, to be locked down at the National Institute of Sports in Patiala. Those were tough days. Because of the heat, athletes found it difficult to train. Also, travel restrictions meant Neeraj was out of international competitions for almost two years.

In the second week of May this year, during a virtual news conference, Neeraj had sounded disappointed about the lack of competitions. “Training is fine and I am giving my 100 per cent. But what I need now is competition. It’s been more than two years that I haven’t participated in an international competition. I need those meets badly,” he had said, sounding unhappy.

“Imagine someone, a gold medal prospect, not getting any competition for two years. He is basically a very simple person. No airs, has his feet firmly on the ground,” said the sponsor representative.

Neeraj’s decision to switch from national javelin coach, the German Uwe Hohns, to bio-mechanical expert Klaus Bartonietz, also from Germany, in 2019 also paid dividends. “Klaus has been much more hands-on when it comes to Neeraj’s development as an athlete,” one source said.

On Saturday, when Neeraj draped himself with the Tricolour, it bore testimony to the good work Klaus has done.

The 23-year-old son of a farmer from Khandra village near Panipat in Haryana recorded his personal best throw of 88.07m in March this year in Patiala, a national record. His throws also prove that he has improved with every passing year.

“People who have seen him at Inspire Institute of Sport in Bellary vouch that he has evolved as an athlete in the last five years. Also, as he interacted with international athletes, he became more confident about his own body. He is a keen student but Neeraj has reached a stage where he weighs the pros and cons before following instructions. That’s the hallmark of an international athlete,” the sponsor representative said.