Beyond near misses: How Tokyo exposed the cracks in Indian Athletics

In Tokyo’s rain-soaked Olympic Stadium, Neeraj Chopra’s javelin pierced the air at a modest 84.03m, landing him 8th at the 2025 World Athletics Championships, a humbling fall for India’s golden boy.

The nation’s contingent of 19 athletes across 15 events arrived with dreams of building on Neeraj’s 2023 gold. Instead, they left empty-handed, the first blank since 2019.

Flashes of occasional brilliance were witnessed; Sachin Yadav’s 86.27m personal best (PB) for 4th in javelin, Sarvesh Kushare’s historic 6th in high jump, offered hope, but the story that unfolded was an all too familiar one: quality athletes, not world-class champions.

For a decade, India has churned out finalists, from Vikas Gowda’s 7th position in the discus throw in 2011-13 to Kishore Jena’s 5th place in the 2023 Javelin throw and others. But only Neeraj Chopra and Anju Bobby George have mounted the podium thus far.

Tokyo 2025: A reality check

India’s 2025 campaign promised much but crumbled under pressure, revealing not just execution flaws but deeper cracks in preparation and resilience.

The highs were tantalizing: Sachin Yadav, a 25-year-old from Uttar Pradesh, stole the spotlight, hurling a PB 86.27m to finish 4th in the men’s javelin final, just 0.40m shy of bronze.

His PB in the final signaled a new homegrown rival to Neeraj, who faltered at 84.03m, his worst global finish in seven years.

Sarvesh Kushare, a 30-year-old army man, created history as the first Indian man to appear in a World Championship High Jump final. While he did register a personal best, clearing 2.28m to finish 6th, he fell an agonizing centimeter short of the national record.

Elsewhere, the lows were brutal, exposing a contingent that faltered when it mattered most.

Only 15% of the contingent reached finals or semifinals, a statistic that underscores systemic underperformance in track and field events on the biggest stage.

Take, for instance, Parul Chaudhary in the women’s 3000m steeplechase. India’s premier distance runner and 2025 Asian silver medalist entered the competition with a national record of 9:12.46s and high expectations after her Doha Diamond League breakthrough.

And yet, she faltered spectacularly, clocking 9:22.24 to finish 9th in Heat 2, 20th overall, and out of the final.

Her inability to hold pace with the pack, despite staying competitive early, highlighted a recurring issue.

Compounding the disappointment, Ankita Dhyani, a breakout talent with a PB of 9:31.99 from the World University Games silver, labored to 10:03.22 for 11th in Heat 3, dead last at 35th overall.

Ankita’s sluggish showing, far off her season’s best, is cause for concern. Raise questions aplenty. That she trailed the leaders from the gun, her late surge irrelevant in a heat demanding early aggression, raises questions about a lack of tactical nous.

Race walking devolved into an outright debacle.

The opening day set a tone of despair: in the men’s 35km, national record holder Ram Baboo was disqualified at the 24km mark after accumulating four red cards for technique infringements, violations of TR54.7.5 rules.

He joined five other walkers in early exits, a humiliating blow for the man who finished 27th in Budapest 2023.

Sandeep Kumar, a last-minute qualifier, limped to 23rd in 2:39:15, well off his 2:35:06 PB—blaming hot, humid conditions but offering no excuses for his mid-pack fade.

Priyanka Goswami, women’s national record holder (2:56:34), clocked 3:05:58s for 24th in the women’s 35km, her eight-second shave from PB overshadowed by penalty time deductions that cost her further places.

She admitted post-race to shifting tactics mid-event, but the result warrants scrutiny: early warnings piled up, and her effort, while gritty, lacked the precision that a World Championship demands.

Meanwhile, Servin Sebastian’s 31st-place finish in the 20km (1:23:03, nearly two minutes off his Asian bronze PB) capped the walking woes, another event that perhaps demands an overhaul of the training manual.

Track events fared no better. Animesh Kujur, breaking ground as India’s first male World sprinter with national records in 100m/200m, finished dead last in his 200m heat (20.77s). A debut nonetheless, but the gap on the world stage was there for all to see.

Annu Rani is disappointed as well. The women’s javelin national record holder (63.82m) could not breach the 64m qualification mark in a performance that was a far cry from her Asian performances.

Rain did hamper javelin throwers, but there can be no denying that execution, and not elements, was the villain across the board. 

Social media erupted in frustration—“talent wasted on technical fouls,” one X user lamented—turning “flashes of brilliance” into a hollow echo.

This was not bad luck; it was a failure to translate domestic quality into top-notch performances on the biggest stage.

A decade in Gowda’s shadow

India’s 2025 heartbreak is not new; it is a rerun of a decade stuck on the same wavelength.

Since 2011, excluding Neeraj’s 2022 silver and 2023 gold, India has had zero medals at the World Championships; its last was Anju Bobby George’s 2003 long jump bronze.

Non-Neeraj top-8 finishes total just fourteen across seven editions (2011-2023).

Vikas Gowda’s back-to-back 7th positions in he discus throw (2011-13) set a benchmark: consistent finalists, roughly 1.5m shy of podiums.

Lalita Babar, in 2015, became the first Indian woman to reach a World final in the 3,000m steeplechase, finishing 8th. In 2019, Annu Rani landed 8th in the women’s javelin, while the mixed 4×400m relay team claimed 7th, a handful of flashes in otherwise muted campaigns.

Neeraj Chopra changed the narrative. His silver in 2022 and gold in 2023 turned the javelin into India’s sole podium event.

M. Sreeshankar’s 7th in long jump and Annu Rani’s 7th in 2022, Kishore Jena’s 5th, D.P. Manu’s 6th, and the men’s 4×400 relay’s 5th in 2023 all echoed Gowda’s old pattern, promising, technically brilliant, yet medal-less.

2025 followed the same template.

Chopra’s 8th-place finish reminded the nation of just how much it relies on him. While Sachin Yadav’s 4th-place and a near-miss of the bronze and Sarvesh Kushare’s 6th in high jump are indicative of existential talent, there is no denying that the podium is still out of reach.

Track events have never offered consolation.

No Indian sprinter has reached a World final, leaving events like sprints empty of podium hope.

In short, Neeraj’s two medals have covered up calls for a systemic overhaul. India has quality athletes across events, but the leap to world-class success eludes almost all, leaving the country tethered to a single star and a single event.

Neeraj’s two medals, 100% of India’s recent haul, mask progress that has plateaued. 

Lessons from peers

While India treads water, comparable nations have sprinted to global relevance.

China, Japan, Turkey, Kenya, and Ethiopia, emerging or resource-constrained peers, have transformed since 2011, amassing 128 combined medals (58 golds) to India’s 2.

Their 2025 hauls (Kenya: 4 golds, Japan: 3, China: 3) dwarf India’s zero, revealing systemic gaps India is yet to bridge.

China turned a throws-heavy base (2 golds, 2011) into a juggernaut with 28 medals by 2023, including 12 golds.

State-funded sprint academies produced Su Bingtian’s 9.83s in 100m, while Gong Lijiao’s six straight shot put podiums (2011-23) show depth.

India’s sprint hopes, like Kujur’s 20.77s, lag far behind. Japan, post-2007 Osaka hosting, leveraged 100+ synthetic tracks and tech labs to jump from 1 gold (2011) to 3 (2023), with 2025’s 80 points (vs. India’s ~10) driven by relays and jumps.

Turkey harnessed foreign coaches and refugee talent for 8 medals, including a 200m gold (2018) and 2025 walk bronze; India’s walkers, despite Asian golds, slumped to 23rd/24th.

African powerhouses Kenya (45 medals, 22 golds) and Ethiopia (32 medals, 16 golds) dominate distance events via grassroots camps.

Kenya’s Rift Valley system churned out 4 golds in 2025 (e.g., Beatrice Chebet’s 10k), while Ethiopia’s Gudaf Tsegay doubled in 2023.

India’s steeplechasers, like Chaudhary, exited heats despite PBs. These nations, with GDPs akin to or below India’s ($2,500 per capita), close the quality-to-world-class gap with robust systems, China’s $1B sports budget, Kenya’s $10M camps, that India’s Khelo India movement hasn’t matched.

India sent 28 athletes in 2023 (vs. 15 in 2013), but its 80% field-event top-8s pale against peers’ diversified hauls across sprints, jumps, and endurance.

India now stands at a crossroads.

Sachin Yadav’s near-miss and Sarvesh Kushare’s historic final are sparks to build on, but without systemic shifts, future championships will continue to witness another “almost there” tale for India.