Neeraj Chopra and Julius Yego have a lot in common: they both learnt javelin from YouTube videos and both were the first javelin throwers from their respective countries to win an Olympic medal. In fact, Neeraj was inspired by Yego in his early days. Now there's one more, rather unfortunate commonality: they both suffered groin injuries during their Olympic silver-winning campaigns.
Yego was 27 when he hurt his groin enroute his silver at the 2016 Olympics and Neeraj, who has been battling a recurring groin injury, turns 27 this year. Who better than Yego to understand what Neeraj is going through?
"The groin is a very small muscle, but it's really difficult to heal quickly. It heals when you rest, but it comes back when you get back to training hard. It is embarrassing to have an injury like that when you are in top shape and the problem with javelin is that you get injured when you are doing so well," Yego tells ESPN from Lausanne, days after Neeraj finished second at the Diamond League event in the Swiss city.
"It's a nagging injury and it really troubles an athlete. It's one of the common injuries among javelin throwers because of the pivots and turns in the throw and the physiological things that happen in the body of an athlete with the javelin, it's really difficult and dangerous at some point. It's an injury that can take you out of the sport if it's not managed properly," says the Kenyan.
Yego, now 35, adds that throwers with a groin injury try to reduce the load on the injured leg and hence tend to rely more on power to compensate for it. "You can't use your hip because the groin won't allow you to, which is very important in javelin. You tend to use only the power generated by the throwing arm and the blocking leg.
"I noticed that [in Neeraj's throws] in Paris because every other time he wanted to hit well, he was using power. When [Arshad] Nadeem was doing 92m, Neeraj really wanted to respond, but he was under pressure. That's why he was not throwing well or fouling it. He was under too much pressure to react and have a big throw.
"In javelin, it is really difficult when you are under pressure like that. When your shoulders are not relaxed...when you are under pressure, you tend to use power. And power cannot always apply in good technique, and you lose it," says the former world champion.
Yego did not have a chance to speak to Neeraj during the competition, but when they later spoke, Neeraj said "he was struggling with pressure and didn't know how to respond to it." Yego had a simple advice: just relax and you will hit it well.
Yego reminded Neeraj of those very words when the Indian was searching for that one big throw at the Lausanne DL. "I saw Neeraj struggling and told him before his sixth throw to "relax, just be yourself and the distance will come." And then boom! He throws 89.49m. He hugged me and said, "Thank you so much for what you said to me, thank you for that advice." For me, maybe it was just a little compliment or advice to him, but it impacted his performance. I was happy because I helped a friend, I helped my competitor to have a good throw," says Yego.
It was the same advice that Yego gave Anderson Peters before the Grenadian threw 90.61m. This "advisor" role is something that Yego, the veteran of this current bunch of javelin throwers, cherishes. "It's only about competing, javelin is all about friendship. As much as we compete to get the best result, we are the best of buddies."
That 89.49m throw on Thursday evening was Neeraj's second-best ever. Yet, it was 51cm short of the 90m mark - a box Neeraj had eagerly been trying to tick.
"I know how Neeraj really wants to cross 90m. Yeah, he really wants it. I was speaking with my manager after the competition in Lausanne and said Neeraj will cross the 90m mark with a big throw...he may even do 95m because he's already done many 89m, 88m and 87m throws. The next time he gets it right, it's going to be huge.
"I'm very sure that if he can have a rest between competitions and hit it correctly, he'll do it [cross 90m]. I'll advise him to just take it slow now. I pray that he gets it this year...if not this season, he still has next year - he's still young and he can throw, so I'm sure he will get that distance. Maybe it's just playing on his mind because he's thinking of throwing 90m, but if he can get it now, it's the best for him. I wish him well."