India’s javelin star Neeraj Chopra pulled off a hilarious prank on his coach Klaus Bartonietz with a special video on Instagram. In the video, which featured Neeraj, Bartonietz and physiotherapist Ishaan Marwaha, the Tokyo Olympics gold medallist poked fun at the German, who is set to depart from his current role after the ongoing season. The Athletics Federation of India (AFI) had initially hired Bartonietz as a biometrics expert in 2019, but appointed him as Neeraj’s coach after Uwe Hohn left.
In the viral video, the trio created their own version of the viral ‘give me my money’ trend. However, Bartonietz was unaware of Neeraj and Marwaha’s intentions.
In the video, Neeraj started off by saying “give me my money”, while the Marwaha and Bartonietz clapped. Marwaha too reiterated the phrase, with everyone clapping.
However, when it was Bartonietz’s turn, no one clapped. This left the German puzzled, before Neeraj and Marwaha started laughing. “Coach was not ready for this,” Neeraj captioned the video.
The hugely successful partnership between Neeraj Chopra and his long-time coach Klaus Bartonietz of Germany will come to an end after five years of working together.
The 75-year-old Bartonietz has cited his age and family commitments to part ways with Chopra.
“He (Bartonietz) is 75 and he now wants to be with his family and does not want too much travel also,” an official of the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) told PTI.
“It is not that Neeraj wants to end the association, it is Bartonietz who has expressed his inability to continue as his (Neeraj’s) coach,” he added.
Under Bartonietz, Chopra won Tokyo Olympics gold, Paris Games silver, became world champion and Diamond League champion, besides becoming Asian Games gold medallist.
(With PTI Inputs)
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