Shivam Lohakare, India's latest 80m javelin thrower

Indian men’s javelin, since Neeraj Chopra’s gold medal at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, has consistently thrown up exciting talent with a sizeable number of them breaching the 80m mark.

- Shantanu Srivastava

While Shivpal Singh, Rohit Yadav, Manu DP and Kishore Jena have fallen by the wayside for varying reasons, the new crop — Yashvir Singh and Sachin Yadav — have shown promise. One must add Shivam Lohakare to that list.

The 20-year-old became the latest entrant to the 80m club at the Indian Open Athletics Meet in Pune on July 12. Shivam won the meet with an effort of 80.95m to become the 16th Indian to throw the spear 80m or beyond.

“It’s good to be in that club but I know I can do much better,” he said from Pune where he trains at the Army Sports Institute. A Havaldar in the Mahar Regiment, Shivam took up javelin as a 13-year-old, almost on a whim.

“It just felt right. I liked the way it left my hand,” he said, recalling his first tryst with the spear. Hailing from Sonai village in Maharashtra’s Ahmednagar, Shivam was always an avid athlete at school, seamlessly dabbling in long jump, high jump, javelin, kabaddi and kho kho.

The decisive turn towards javelin happened in 2019 when he won a district level meet with a throw of 45m. “I competed in the high jump as well at that meet and finished fourth. That was the end of my other pursuits.”