Ashish Yadav and Neeraj ChopraNEW DELHI: Ashish Yadav's journey started with a wooden javelin in Mawaiya, Mirzapur, Uttar Pradesh. He trained near dry ponds with quicks and patches.

The dangers of such a location notwithstanding, Ashish wanted to follow in Neeraj Chopra's footsteps. The 19-year-old weighed all of 70kg when he was picked to train in Hisar at the facility jointly run by the Inspire Institute of Sport (IIS) and the Sports Authority of India (SAI).

His six-feet-one-inch frame put him in the underweight category, but coach Arvind Kumar saw promise in him. And on Friday night in Eugene, Oregon, that promise turned into a silver medal.

50m). 48m showing in 2016."

When he had come to me, he had done only 60 metres in the trials. He's improved significantly in the last two years.

There was no explosive raw power, but now... com.

Making Ashish's performance even more commendable is the fact that he didn't have enough time to practise after recovering from a knee injury. Additionally, he was reeling mentally from the disappointment of finishing fifth at the U20 Asian Championships in Hong Kong.

There, he arrived late due to visa issues and encountered dietary challenges since he is a vegetarian. Ahead of the U20 World Championships, he was throwing well during training sessions."

Before the competition, we spoke about doing better than the U20 Asian Championships. What we couldn't do there, he should do it here.

And he was throwing well before he left," said Arvind." When we spoke today, after the competition, he said he was not entirely pleased with the performance because he was targeting a bigger throw...

But he was not entirely downbeat either. 49m at the 2026 Indian Open]," he continued.

Neeraj Chopra's gold medal 10 years ago in Bydgoszcz, Poland, while setting a world junior record that still stands, was not only the starting point for arguably India's greatest Olympian ever, but also set off a domino effect. Neeraj lauded the youngster and backed him to achieve greater success in the future."

Always a great feeling to see Indian athletes competing and winning at the international level; this one is a little more special for me as a javelin thrower. Super proud of you, Ashish, on your Silver at the U-20 Worlds; this is just the start!"