On August 7th, Neeraj Chopra won an historic gold medal in athletics at the Tokyo Olympics with the men’s javelin final. Javelin star Neeraj Chopra stunned the athletics world with a final throw of 86.58m to end the country’s 100-year wait for a medal at the Olympics. He also became Olympic champion in the javelin final at the Olympic Stadium, which was matched with his throw.
The 21-year-old made history with a stunning gold medal at the 2016 World Junior Championships in Poland. Chopra broke the world junior record with 86.64m, the longest distance ever thrown, and won a bronze medal in Rio a month later, then progressed to gold medalists at the 2018 Commonwealth Games and the 2018 Asian Games. He will open his 2021 international season with a throw of 83.18 meters, which would earn him the javelin gold medal at the event in Lisbon, Portugal.
He took his sixth throw to register a distance of 84.24m. The gold medalist’s throw was his second throw at 87.58m. Nobody had crossed the 87m mark before Neeraj crossed his incredible mark. Incredibly, India ended its campaign for the Tokyo Olympics by saving the best for the future. Athletics is not a category in which Indian athletes are among the great contenders.
He won gold medals at the 2018 Asian and Commonwealth Games and is the current national record holder with a throw of 8.807m. At the U20 World Championships in 2016, he set an U20 world record of 8.648m. He is the first Indian athlete to win a world athletics title at Under-20 level.
Neeraj Chopra won a career best of 86.47 metres to not only join the elite list of Indian athletes to win a gold medal on her debut at the Commonwealth Games, but also become the first Indian to triumph in the Javelin throw at the 2018 Commonwealth Games (CWG). He is also the second Indian to win individual gold after shooter Abhinav Bindra, who topped the podium in 2008.
The only thing you need to know is that India had the biggest success of all on Saturday when Neeraj Chopra became the only other athlete from the country to win gold at the Olympics. Chopra’s historic victory on Saturday night means India now has seven Olympic medals wins, crowning a resurgence of national pride devastated by the coronavirus pandemic that has killed more than 427,000 Indians. India is also performing strongly in the men’s and women’s hockey teams after a decade in the doldrums.
Chopra was the only other individual gold medallist of India alongside his compatriot Abhinav Bindra, who won the 10m air rifle at the Beijing 2008 Games. On August 11, 2008, Bindra won the gold medal in the men’s 10m air rifle at the 2008 Summer Olympics.
The gold brings India’s medal count at the Tokyo Olympics to seven, the highest ever at a single Olympics. It is also India’s first Olympic medal in athletics.
Chopra’s performance on Saturday was one of the best performances by an Indian at the Olympics, as she finished ahead of gold medal & 2017 World Champion Johannes Vetter of Germany.
Chopra said he had found it hard to beat German gold medal favorite and world champion Johannes Vetter of Germany at the 2017 Olympics and struggled with his first two throws before passing the 85.64m automatic qualifying mark in his final throw.
Half an hour after the Indian flag flew from the tallest mast in Tokyo’s Olympic Stadium, Neeraj Chopra and India stood on the medal podium and felt themselves on top of the world. After the 22-year-old took the lead at the first attempt with a throw of 82.03 – a distance no other competitor had reached in the final – to win India’s first gold medal at the Tokyo Games, his cheered teammates and coaches awaited from the stands.
Chief of General Staff MM Naravane, the highest ranking Indian army official, congratulated Subedar Neeraj Chopra on winning the nation’s first javelin gold medal at the Olympics with 8,758 meters, the army tweeted on its official website. After gold medalist Neerut Chopra secured India’s second individual gold in Olympic history with a sensational performance, the Haryana and Punjab Chief Ministers, M. L. Khattar and Amarinder Singh, announced cash bonuses of Rs 6 crore and Rs 2 crore respectively.
The Haryana government also honored nine of the state’s historic female hockey players with cash bonuses of Rs 50 lakh, the amount given to athletes from the state who came fourth at the Olympics. Edtech major BYJUS also announced Rs 1 crore for the other six medallists who won laurels at the Tokyo Olympics in the country. The BCCI also announced that a coronation for Chopra was reserved, who produced in the final a second throw of 86.58m to stun the athletic world and end India’s 100-year wait for an Olympic athletics medal.
The palatial house in Zirakpur, on the outskirts of Chandigarh, was filled with media and fans Thirteen years ago when gunman Abhinav Bindra won the gold medal in Beijing Olympics. On Saturday night, a few miles from home, fans and media poured into the Tau Devi Lal Stadium in Panchkula to watch Neeraj Chopra win India’s second individual gold at the Tokyo Olympics, this time on the javelin. All of India celebrated and it was a proud moment for the country.
