It was only a matter of time before Neeraj Chopra broke through the elusive 90m barrier, according to his former coach Klaus Bartonietz, who described the double Olympic medallist as a highly attentive and creative athlete constantly seeking to refine and improve his craft. Chopra opened his season in stunning fashion as he sent his spear to 90.23m in the Diamond League in Doha last week to finally enter the elusive 90m club. “It was just a matter of time (that he would breach the 90m mark),” Bartonietz told PTI when asked about his former ward’s latest achievement.

Chopra and Bartonietz, a German bio-mechanics expert, shared a highly fruitful five-year partnership during which the Indian javelin star collected a host of accolades, including a historic Olympic gold at Tokyo and a silver at the Paris Games last year.

“Neeraj is a very responsive athlete, very attentive, and trustful. That trust places a responsibility on you as a coach to always be at your best,” Bartonietz said.

“But on the other side, he brings a lot of own mental effort into training. He is very creative towards his training in terms of looking for new exercises, looking for making the exercises more efficient, specifically for the javelin.” Rather than functioning mechanically, Chopra approaches training with curiosity and initiative.

“He understands very well what the event requires. What we (coaches) want is a creative-thinking athlete, not one that just asks ‘coach what we have to do today’ and just walk into (training) like it’s a factory, just mechanistic working.” Apart from the Olympic medals, under Bartonietz, Chopra also became a World and Diamond League champion, besides becoming an Asian Games gold medallist.

The two amicably parted ways last year, with the septuagenarian stepping back to spend more time with his family.

Bartonietz has since joined the Inspire Institute of Sport as a consultant and is currently conducting a five-day javelin workshop at their Hisar campus, set to conclude on Thursday.

At the Diamond League opener, Chopra led the field until Germany’s Julian Weber unleashed a 91.06m throw in his final attempt, edging the Indian into second place.

And despite breaching 90m, Chopra later described his second-place finish as bittersweet. It was the 27-year-old’s fourth runners-up finish in a big-ticket event.

“There is no need to motivate Neeraj, he just knows that it is a sport, event. The throw (better than his) can come at any time, you have to be prepared to counter it.

“But in Neeraj’s case, no. He knows. He doesn’t require motivation. He comes in with this mindset,” he added.

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