The promising Haryana javelin thrower Himanshu twice improved national junior record and his personal best to 80.38m in Bhubaneswar
After breaking a 11-year old national junior record in U18 boys javelin throw, Haryana’s Asian Youth Champion Himanshu is eyeing the World U20 record of his idol—Neeraj Chopra, who is two-time Olympic and world medallist.
At 2016 World U20 Athletics Championships in Polish City of Bydgoszcz Chopra’s gold medal winning throw of 86.48m turned out to be a world record, which still stands.
In the ongoing 40th National Junior Athletics Championships at Bhubaneswar’s Kalinga Stadium, Himanshu from Hisar in Haryana hurled the javelin (700g) to a distance of 79.96m in the U-18 boys’ qualification round on Friday (October 10). His performance was better than the meet record of 76.50m set in 2014 in Vijayawada by Chopra.
On Saturday (October 11) Himanshu’s gold medal winning throw of 80.38m was a personal best and an improvement of his own meet record.
Going by his back-to-back performances in qualification and final in Bhubaneswar, Himanshu will be one to watch for in the future. He has been training for four-five years, he claims.
Himanshu has also booked a ticket to the World U20 Championships scheduled to be held next year in Oregon, USA. The qualification period started October 1, 2025 and will continue till July 26, 2026.
The qualification mark for World U20 men’s javelin is 68.50m. “I was confident of crossing the 80m mark in the final. I’m happy to have achieved my goal,” Himanshu said after winning gold.
The final selection to World U20 Athletics Championships will depend on Himanshu’s consistent performance in the build up to the global competition in the USA.
Himanshu claims he was regularly crossing the 80m mark in practice but wasn’t able to showcase his potential earlier in April at the 2025 Asian Youth Athletics Championships held in Saudi Arabia. He won gold with a distance of 67.57m in Saudi Arabia.
“I didn’t carry my personal equipment (javelin) which was why I wasn’t able to do my best,” he said.
According to Himanshu his training base is Hisar but he often goes to Bellary’s Inspire Institute of Sports during the off season. “I will go to Bellary in November to prepare for the 2026 season,” he explained.
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