A recent video of a young boy throwing a javelin in the fields of Dabhiya, a small village in Uttar Pradesh went viral on social media, leaving users wondering if India has found its next Neeraj Chopra. The 15 year old boy in the video is Rohan Yadav who’s coach Michael Musselmann tweeted a video of his, taking a run up and throwing the javelin. Musselmann also stated in his tweet that the throw in the video would put Yadav in the top 10 under-18 throwers in the world. The video has since, been retweeted more than 7,000 times leaving people inquisitive about the talented young athlete.
Musselmann who has been coaching Yadav since a year, says that Yadav seems to be a promising talent. “I met Rohan last year on social media. He kept sending me videos of his throws, and I kept in touch with him. We decided to train together and here we are, building a javelin thrower who has tons of potential. I coached his older brother Rohit Yadav too, who broke the Indian Youth record and was number 1 in the world U19 in 2019,” shares Musselmann.
Talking to the talent in question, we ask Yadav how he feels to be touted as the next Neeraj Chopra and a humble Yadav says, “Neeraj bhaiya javelin king hai. Maine toh abhi start kiya hai. My role model in javelin throw is Neeraj Chopra and my elder brother Rohit Yadav, who is also really good at javelin throw inspires me. But I’ve a long way to go for now and I’m working hard.”
{{/usCountry}}Talking to the talent in question, we ask Yadav how he feels to be touted as the next Neeraj Chopra and a humble Yadav says, “Neeraj bhaiya javelin king hai. Maine toh abhi start kiya hai. My role model in javelin throw is Neeraj Chopra and my elder brother Rohit Yadav, who is also really good at javelin throw inspires me. But I’ve a long way to go for now and I’m working hard.”
{{/usCountry}}Yadav and Musselmann are training closely, hoping that the Athletics Federation of India recognises Yadav’s talent. “I send Rohan training plans and coach him. My goal is that Athletics Federation of India hopefully picks him up and gets him under their belt. They have done an amazing job with Neeraj and they will know well what to do with Rohan. My goal is to identify talents, train them, create awareness of them and then hopefully they can make the youth national teams and move on,” shares Musselmann.
Peru based Musselmann’s story of how he got in to coaching Indian athletes is quite fascinating. “In 2015, my friend Garry Calvert, got a job offer to train as a javelin national coach in India. He told me that there was a young thrower, Chopra, who if trained properly, could be a great thrower. When he moved to India, I thought that ‘Indian Javelin’ could be an interesting social media theme and brand, and I decided to make it happen.”
Musselmann then made a page on social media called Indian Javelin which has today become a means for young talent to connect with the coach. Neeraj Chopra’s recent win has further piqued the interest of youth towards the sport. “At the beginning, we had 100 followers on the Indian javelin page on social media, and it took time to speed it up. From 2017-2020 our javelin fan base grew more and more, as Neeraj and other great throwers, such as Annu, Davinder, Shivpal, were achieving great results. 2021 Tokyo was surreal, our page got more than 2 million hits during 2 weeks, and #indianjavelin hashtag, that I also created, was in the news everywhere. I am in touch with many throwers, my role has been to promote their achievements in our social media platform in Facebook. They appreciate this as this helps them become more famous,” he says.
Through his connection with young javelin throwers, one wonders if Musselmann has spotted more talented athletes like Rohan Yadav, who could walk in the shoes of Neeraj Chopra. “In India, many talents are in smaller villages, we want to awake their interest and hopefully through a larger NGO, get them proper equipment and training plans, and help them be more healthy and positive in life. If through this process we can find the next Chopra, it would be amazing, if not, at least we had a positive impact on their lives, javelin is fun!” says Musselmann.
Ask him how he feels to see his video of Yadav becoming so viral and Musselmann says, “It has been overwhelming! The video has been seen 540000 times, shared 10000 times, and liked 50000 times. I am speechless.” In his tweet, Musselmann had also requested people to come forward and sponsor Yadav as he could be the next Neeraj Chopra India needs. Did his request for fund raising meet with success? “It for sure has opened a lot of doors as I believe we can raise funds through crowdfunding to collect money for javelins, shoes, training, clinics, preparing young coaches, launching our India javelin talent games, and do something great for India. I think this will just pick up from here,” he shares.
What was Musselmann’s guidance to Yadav after this viral video in which he was training for a throw of 65 meters with 800g? “I told Rohan to slow down! I don’t want him to get injured. What he can do is amazing, and we are still in base training. He threw our goal for 2022 in his current training which was a throw of 65 m with 800g! I think he will gradually throw 70 m with 800g, which would place him top 3 in the world U17. Our final goal is for next year, in which we want to break his elder brother’s (Rohit Yadav) India youth record of 81.75g with 700g,” says Musselmann.
So what waits in store for Yadav who has been taking online training from coach Musselmann for over a year now? “I have been practicing for over two years in Javelin throw. There’s been a net improvement in my throw of about 10-15 meters lately. I can now make a 65 meter throw with 800 grams and I am currently getting ready for the Under-20 World Championship,” informs Yadav.
Author tweets @FizzyBuddha