Rohit Yadav has been struggling to sleep since coming back from the Commonwealth Games. An 81.56-meter throw in the men’s javelin final meant that the Indian finished 7th among 12 athletes in Glasgow.
Among the three Indian athletes present in the final, Rohit’s throw was the lowest. The other two, Neeraj Chopra and Yashvir Singh, took silver and bronze respectively, both with throws just above the 85-meter mark.
Neeraj’s season best of 85.83m at the time and Yashvir’s personal best of 85.41m were well below what Rohit had thrown just before the Commonwealth Games: 87.05m.
The fact that he was nowhere close to that still irritates Rohit.
The 25-year-old, hailing from Dabhiya village in Machhlishahr, redeemed himself just weeks later, hurling a massive throw of 87.68m at the Continental Tour silver meet in Bhubaneswar.
The distance mattered. It vaulted Rohit into the second spot among Indian javelin stars, behind only Neeraj Chopra. But even that could not make him happy.
“What is the point of throwing here? I need to throw big in bigger competitions, that is my goal,” Rohit Yadav told IndiaToday.in in an exclusive interview.
“I was really sad and irritated with my throw in Glasgow. I am not happy with this personal best as well,” he added.
While he continues to brood over the result, the reality is that Rohit’s performance in the Continental Tour earlier in August put him firmly in medal contention for the Asian Games 2026, set to be hosted in Japan next month.
With Neeraj Chopra now out of the competition due to a season-ending ankle injury, Rohit is India’s strongest hope for what could possibly be the country’s final javelin medal in 2026.
ANOTHER 90M THROWER IN THE MAKING?
A 90m throw is a rare commodity in javelin. The sport, inducted for the first time in the Olympics in 1908, has only 28 athletes to date that have breached the 90m mark.
Germany has the best consistency in 90m throws, producing 7 out of those 28 athletes.
That is why Neeraj Chopra’s feat at Doha (90.23m) was so special: he became the first and only Indian thrower to breach the elusive 90.
But what after Neeraj? What happens when age catches up to him? What happens when the athlete retires?
That’s where Rohit Yadav comes in. With him hurling two throws above 87 meters in 2026, naturally, the conversation moves into that territory. Can he achieve 90m?
His former coach, Michael Musselmann, who trained Rohit early in his career, believes he is an exceptional talent with a natural arm capable of producing big throws.
“He’s a very impressive talent. He’s not tall, not strong in terms of weightlifting, but naturally very strong and has an amazing arm,” Michael says from Peru, where he trains athletes across the globe online.
“Rohit is a very natural thrower. I think it comes from cricket, or maybe he just had it in his system. He knew how to use his legs, his upper body, the rotation, and the follow-through, and he always had a good feel for the javelin.”
“I think he has 90 metres in his body.”
ROHIT YADAV’S JOURNEY IN JAVELIN
That natural instinct did not start in high-performance elite centres; it traces back to his childhood home. The roots of Rohit Yadav’s javelin journey began in 2012, when he was in Standard V.
His father, a former state-level decathlete, had cut out a bamboo stem which happened to form the shape of a javelin.
“I remember one day in the village when my dad (Sabhajee Yadav) brought home a bamboo stem. He was showing me how to throw it. When the stick fell, it didn’t lie flat; it stuck into the ground and stood up. The 11-year-old kid in me was fascinated,” Rohit recalled.
“I took up javelin from there. I was training at home then, and I worked with Michael online after that,” Rohit added.
Michael, who follows Indian athletics closely, learnt about Rohit Yadav in 2018.
“I knew that he had gone to compete at the Asian Youth Games. He finished with a medal and a throw of around 70 metres. I saw that he was a huge talent from a video someone sent me and offered to train him for free,” Michael said.
Michael coached him for two years, during which Rohit broke the Indian youth record with 81.75m, a mark that still stands today. He also became world number two as a U20 thrower with a 78.99m mark.
But Rohit’s rise from the youth ranks to the senior level was not as meteoric as he would have liked.
“The problem is that he got injured. He had elbow surgery, and with javelin throwers, you never know. Once you get an elbow injury, a second injury could be the end of your career,” Michael said.
Rohit’s elbow mechanics remain a defining aspect of his throw.
In 2023 and 2025, he was touching the 83–84 metre mark. But Rohit believes adjusting his elbow delivery gave him a 4m upgrade from last year.
“I don’t think that I used to put in my full power before. I was throwing more with my rhythm. But last year I realised that if I put in my effort as well as rhythm, I could go bigger,” Rohit said.
Michael attributes this gain to dynamic run-up speed combined with explosive release.
“His run-up is very dynamic, very aggressive, probably running around 22 to 23 kilometres per hour,” Michael observed. “Then you add the release speed to the javelin. If you want to throw far, the javelin has to fly at least 100 kilometres per hour. I’m sure he is above that.”
While that velocity is impressive, both Rohit and Michael agree that his technique still has flaws, specifically his front leg block.
“If you check how Rumesh throws, his block is totally straight. When you see pictures of Rohit’s 87-metre throw, he was bending the leg,” Michael explained. “If you don’t block straight, you lose energy or tend to pull the javelin down.”
Rohit agrees with the diagnosis: “I for sure think that my front brace is not happening correctly. If I can solve that, I think I can better myself by 2 meters right away.”
Michael feels that Rohit is at 90 per cent of his potential.
Neeraj Chopra was 27 when he breached the 90m mark, and Arshad Nadeem was the same age when he set the Olympic record with a 92m-plus throw to win in Paris.
If that age marks the beginning of peak athletic performance, then Rohit still has two years on his side, right in time for the Los Angeles Olympics 2028.
“I think he can be a medal contender in LA 2028, and this was part of my vision. When I met him in 2018 or 2019, I told him he would one day throw over 90. I really think that he can do that,” Michael said.
ROHIT YADAV’S CHALLENGE AT ASIAN GAMES
While LA 2028 remains the long-term benchmark, Rohit’s immediate focus shifts directly to the field in Japan.
Rohit’s biggest competition will be Sri Lanka’s Rumesh Pathirage, one of the world’s top javelin throwers at the moment, who happens to be one of Rohit’s closest friends on the circuit.
“I speak to him a lot during events. He is quite funny. I teach him Hindi, he tells me to learn Tamil. He has been coming to India for a while, and we meet up every time,” Rohit laughed.
Rumesh tried to help Rohit during CWG 2026 as well, advising him to throw flat and hard in the swirling winds of Glasgow. Beyond tactical advice, a casual conversation about training methods led to a major breakthrough for the Indian star.
“I asked Rumesh how he increased his power so much. He told me that he doesn’t lift weights more than 60–65 kgs, and that he simply works on his rhythm and running speed,” Rohit revealed. “What I changed after returning from CWG is that I reduced my weight by 20 per cent, and that gave me the biggest throw of my career.”
Rohit is adamant about building on that momentum.
For now, 90 metres can wait. Rohit Yadav has more immediate business to take care of, with the Asian Games offering him an opportunity to convert his recent progress into a major medal.
The 87.68m throw in Bhubaneswar elevated his standing in Indian javelin. It put him second only to Neeraj Chopra, registered one of the biggest throws in the world this season, and brought him close to a mark that only the very best have crossed. Yet Rohit does not seem particularly interested in what the number means outside the competition arena.
He knows that the throw came at a Continental Tour meet, not at an Olympics, a World Championship, or an Asian Games. That distinction matters to him. The disappointment from Glasgow, where he managed only 81.56m despite entering the Commonwealth Games with an 87.05m mark, remains fresh in his mind.
That is perhaps what makes the possibility of 90 metres more intriguing. Rohit is not chasing a number because it would put his name alongside the world’s best. He wants to throw that far in big competitions, where a throw of that scale matters.
Michael Musselmann believed he could do it when Rohit was still a teenager. Six years later, Rohit is finally beginning to believe it too.
– Ends
