Star javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra on Saturday grew only the second Indian to win an individual gold in the Olympics, out-performing the track by quite a distance to cut up the first impression and reach Games medal for the country.
The 23-year-old farmer’s son from Khandra village near Panipat in Haryana provided a second-round throw of 87.58m in the finals of the Olympic games to take the athletics world and end India’s 100-year waiting for a gold medal.
The star, Chopra won the country’s seventh medal and first gold in this Olympics and followed shooter Abhinav Bindra (2008 Beijing Games) as India’s individual gold winners in the masterpiece.
Only three of his fellow contenders in the game have thrown the javelin notably farther than he has in 2021. Two of them were defeated in the qualification round. He noted his personal best (PB) throw of 88.07m this year in March, a brand-new national record. The numbers show that he has developed his achievement almost every year since 2013.
Czech Republic throwers Jakub Vadlejch (86.67m) and Vitezslav Vesely (85.44m) took the silver and bronze respectively