Every time Ashish Jakhar walked up to the throwing circle at the Gifu Nagaragawa Stadium in Japan to throw the hammer, the swagger was unmistakable. The 19-year-old from Akehri Madanpur in Haryana was the defending hammer throw champion at the Asian Junior Championship being played in Gifu, and normally the pressure of repeating the feat weighs athletes down.

But Jakhar insisted that he wasn’t even thinking about retaining the gold medal. He was looking at the Asian meet as preparation for the Junior World Championship next month in Finland, and hence wanted to focus on improving his own personal record.

As things panned out, it took the eventual champion just two throws to set a new Under-20 national mark of 76.86 metres to assure himself of his second gold and lay the marker for the world championship.

Jakhar was adjudged the best male athlete of the Junior Federation Cup in Coimbatore in April after he improved the U-20 national record by over three meters to clinch the gold with a throw of 75.04 metres.

Runaway favourite

That throw had made Jakhar a runway favourite even before the start of the competition in Gifu and it was this reputation, apart from compatriot Damneet Singh who finished second, who were going to be his biggest challengers on Thursday.

But the 19-year-old ended up making it his strength and insisted that it simply took away any pressure of performance.

“Two years ago in Vietnam, I was probably a lot more nervous but this time I was very confident of myself since I had done very well in the Junior Federation Cup and was feeling a very good rhythm,” he told The Field.

Confidence has been Jakhar’s standout quality apart from his speed, according to his coach Surender Singh. The youngster joined Singh’s coaching centre in a government high school in Akheri Madanpur village about six years ago as one of his elder cousins also went there to practice hammer throw.

Jakhar started by tagging along with his cousin, then worked a bit on his fitness, and then took up hammer throw despite the sport not being very popular among the other throw events, just because he wanted to follow in the footsteps of his brother.

In his own words, it was the 2013 Junior Nationals in Bengaluru that changed his overall approach towards the event as he went on to win the U-16 gold medal with a new meet record. He has been constantly taking bigger strides since then, having won the Asian Junior title twice and has now set sights on breaking the 80-metre mark at the World Championship.

“I have been working a lot on the technical aspects, along with my endurance and strength, as I want to challenge for the medal at the World Championship, and even try to make the grade in the senior events from here on,” said Jakhar.

There isn’t much time for him to prepare for the event since he is also planning to take part in the Inter-State Athletics Meet in Guwahati later this month. This meet serves as the qualifying event for the Asian Games and he would be throwing a heavier hammer there.

But just like Jakhar, even Singh doesn’t think that is much of a hindrance. “We have been preparing with a specific plan and I am confident that he can pull it off in the World Championship.”

If he does, it would definitely be a big boost to a discipline that has always been in the shadows of discus and shot put in India.