'It's nice to have the status of champion'

One of the abiding images from the Rio Olympics is of Dilshod Nazarov going down on his knees and screaming out in delight in the hammer throw cage.

The big man had just won Tajikistan’s first-ever Olympic gold medal and he had every reason to be on cloud nine. He was already a hero in Tajikistan for his achievements but the gold medal lifted him to another plane.

The celebrity status sits lightly on the big man’s frame. Humility is his constant companion but the competitive fire still burns bright. Three Asian Games gold medals and three Asian Championship titles, besides the crowning glory of that Olympic gold, haven’t dimmed his desire to excel and that was exactly the reason for him to be in Bhubaneswar on Saturday evening, fighting for his fourth gold in the continental championship. Success seemed a matter of routine but Nazarov was far from satisfied after emerging victorious from the cage. “Not too good, not too bad,” he remarked.

In actual fact, the only Olympic champion on view at these championships was a cut above the rest of the field, with China’s Wang Shizhu almost three metres behind in second position.

Just four days ago, Nazarov was competing in the Istvan Gyulai memorial meeting in Hungary. He arrived here only on Friday evening and hours later, he was on the field, winning his country’s first gold here, before catching a flight back on Sunday. A hectic schedule but Nazarov is enjoying it.

“It is nice to have the status of the champion,”  he remarked when asked about the motivation behind travelling to these championships. “I enjoy competing and winning, that is the reason. It is important to have the tag of the champion.”

Nazarov’s journeys in the competitive lane began long back in Dushanbe, the capital of Tajikistan, where his mother guided him initially, after he made the switch from basketball. He had lost his father early but the hardships only steeled his resolve.

Success didn’t come instantly. At his first international meet, the 1996 Asian Junior Championships in New Delhi, Nazarov couldn’t land even one throw in the sector. “I was very inexperienced at the time. But I learned and progressed,” he said, smiling at the memory of that horror show.

 Ten years after that, he was the best in Asia, with his first Asian Games gold at Doha. But success at the world level took time in coming. The silver at Beijing in 2015 was his first World Championship medal and a year later, he went a notch higher with the Olympic gold.

“It was a big relief. An Olympic gold is very important for a sportsperson and I was overjoyed on achieving that feat finally,” said the champion who was 11th in 2008 and 10th in 2012.

Nazarov is also the president of the Tajikistan Athletics Federation  – a rare instance of a competitor also being a top administrator. But he is in no mood to go full-time into administration. “I do want to compete in the 2020 Olympic Games but it will depend on my fitness. Age doesn’t matter for me, if I can stay injury-free, I plan to carry on.”