Anderson Peters, who is from Grenada, won gold at the World Championships with three javelin throws over 90m. Even Neeraj Chopra had trouble with the head wind. When he was younger, he loved cricket like crazy. Usain Bolt would come along and win Peters’ heart with his amazing feats that broke world records. At first, Peters became a sprinter, but then he got hurt and had to switch to javelin.
“I liked cricket. In Grenada, we played both cricket and track and field. I’d do both of them. I just thought it would be fun to throw the ball. I thought I could bowl it so fast that the batsman wouldn’t even be able to see it. “Even though I couldn’t throw 90 mph as a kid, that was always my goal,” he tells the world athletics podcast. Follow Hitsbuddy more news.
Usain Bolt
Then, Usain Bolt got in the way. “He broke the world record that year. I wanted to run fast.” After getting hurt, he switched to javelin, where he now competes against Chopra of India.
Neeraj Chopra and Anderson Peters of Grenada met for the first time at the 2016 Under-20 World Championships in Poland. This was two years before Peters, who has been studying in the US since 2017, broke the freshman record at Mississippi State by throwing 81.95 metres. Chopra became the junior world champion and an overnight star at the Zdzislaw Krzyszkowiak Stadium. His distance of 86.48 metres was a junior world record. Johan Grobler of South Africa was second (80.59m), and Peters, who was third but almost didn’t get any attention in India, was almost forgotten (79.65m). Peters had set a national record for people under 20, but at the time Chopra was seen as the next big thing.
Grobler and Chopra were both in Group A for qualifying, but Grobler’s score of 76.30 metres was only good enough for seventh place. Chopra had the second best throw in qualifying on Friday, with 88.39 metres. Peters had the best throw, with 89.91 metres.
World Championships last year
Peters is one of the best people in the world. He won the World Championships last year, and even though he didn’t make it to the final at the Olympics in Tokyo, he has found his range this season. Even though his back hurts, he still threw 93.07 metres in the Doha Diamond League and 90.31 metres in the Stockholm Diamond League, which put Chopra in second place.
Peters is a tough opponent because he can still make a big throw even near the end of the competition. Chopra, on the other hand, has set the standard in big events by doing his best in the first two or three tries, and no one else has been able to beat him. Dr. Klaus Bartonietz, Chopra’s coach, knows that Peters is a threat. “There is Keshron Walcott and Anderson Peters. They can fight until the very end. So far, no one has made Neeraj do that. Bartonietz had said before the Worlds that his first throw at the Olympics was good enough and that his second throw was better.
