TOP:Javelin thrower Annu Rani is much stronger but a technical flaw remains: Former coach Naik

The 30-year-old Uttar Pradesh athlete, taking part in her third World Championships, made the cut for the finals by virtue of finishing in the top 12. Anne, who created history in Doha by becoming the first Indian woman thrower to reach the finals, will need nothing short of a miracle to finish on the podium at Oregon. Although Rio and Tokyo Olympics silver medalist and season leader Maggie Malone, who has a personal best of over 67 m, exited the field with the best throw of 54.19 in Oregon, there are quality throwers in the field for the finals. Two throwers — the Tokyo Games gold medalist and Doha World Championships silver winner (63.86) and 2022 Paris Diamond League winner Hanuka (64.32) — have thrown better than Anna's lifetime best of 63.82 m in the qualification round itself. It goes without saying that they will crank it up in the finals. Defending champion Kelsey-Lee Barber, who has a mammoth personal best of 67.70 m, will also be competing for the medal. To reach anywhere close to the podium, it would require an extraordinary effort from Anna. But the former coach, who has trained Anna for 5 years, believes that Anna has it in her and thinks this is her best bet at bagging a Worlds medal. “You could see she was trying to conserve energy in the qualification round. She will surely come up with a much better throw in the finals, and so will her competitors. But I know she is capable of hitting the 65 m mark. She is a senior athlete now with a lot of experience, she should go for the medal,” says an optimistic who is a javelin coach at the Army Institute of Sports. Anna, who has virtually no competition on the domestic circuit, first broke the national mark back in 2014 with two throws of 58.83 m at the same competition. Since then, no other woman thrower has entered the national record book apart from her. This is her NR progression: 58.83 m and 59.53 in 2014, 59.87 and 60.01 in 2016, 61.86 m in 2017, 62.34 and 62.43 in 2019, 63.24 a year later and 63.82 in 2022. After the Tokyo Olympics low, where she managed a throw of just over 54 m and finished 29 out of 30 in the qualification round, Anna has slowly covered lost ground. At the 2022 Javelin Nationals in Jamshedpur in June, she rewrote the national record for the 9th time with a 63.82 m throw. Anna has performed consistently this season, hitting 60 m plus range regularly. “Anna has improved a lot in the last couple of years. She is a much stronger thrower and I have learned she has hit 65 m plus throws in practice,” says, who parted ways with Anna in 2018. But for Anna to get optimal results in the final, coach believes, there is one nagging flaw that she would have to rectify. “It was an issue with her even while she trained with me. She has this habit of dropping the arm (throwing arm) way too quickly, and that makes the throw less lethal. The coaches can only tell her, but she has to apply it. She gets some throws right and some wrong. I saw her at the Interstate in June, and she had the same issue,” explains, who has worked with several top throwers in the country.