Neeraj Chopra Olympics 2021: Neeraj Chopra, a star javelin thrower, became only the second Indian to win an individual gold medal at the Olympics on Saturday, outperforming the field by a wide margin to claim India’s first track-and-field medal.
The 23-year-old farmer’s son from Khandra village near Panipat in Haryana stunned the sports world by throwing 87.58 metres in the finals, ending India’s 100-year wait for an Olympic track and field medal.
Chopra became India’s seventh medalist and first gold medalist at the Olympics, joining shooter Abhinav Bindra (2008 Beijing Games) as individual gold medalists.
Only 3 of his fellow competitors within the event have thrown the javelin farther than he has in 2021. 2 of them were eliminated within the qualification spherical. He recorded his personal best (PB) throw of eighty eight.07m this year in March, a brand new national record. The numbers show that he has improved his performance nearly per annum since 2013.
Jakub Vadlejch (86.67m) and Vitezslav Vesely (85.44m) of the Czech Republic won silver and bronze, respectively.Chopra entered the final as a medal possibility after dominating the qualification round on Wednesday with a remarkable 86.59m first round throw.
Few, though, expected him to hammer his way to gold in such a dominant manner on the largest of stages.
Johannes Vetter of Germany, the season leader and pre-tournament gold favourite, was eliminated after the first three throws, finishing ninth with a best effort of 82.52m. Vetter had thrown the javelin to 90m plus distances seven times between April and June.
After the first three throws, the top eight players get three more chances, while the remaining four players in the 12-man final are eliminated.
Chopra has accomplished something that the likes of late Milkha Singh and P T Usha were unable to do in the 1960 and 1984 editions.
Since the country began competing in the Games in Antwerp, Belgium in 1920, no Indian has won a medal in athletics.
Although many inquiries, including the records of the then IAAF (now World Athletics), indicated that Norman Pritchard participated for Great Britain, the International Olympic Committee still honours him with silver medals in the 200m and 200m hurdles at the 1900 Paris Olympics.
In any case, Pritchard was not an Indian, and the country’s first Olympic participation was in 1920 under the auspices of a national governing body.
Narendra Modi, the Prime Minister of India, stated “At Tokyo, history is being written! What Neeraj Chopra has accomplished today will be remembered for the rest of his life.”
