Neeraj Chopra won the country’s seventh medal and first gold in this Olympics and joined shooter Abhinav Bindra (2008 Beijing Games) as India’s individual gold winners in the showpiece.
1 gold, 2 silver & 4 bronze – India record best ever medal haul in Olympics
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Neeraj Chopra of Haryana created history with Olympic Gold Medal in Javelin throw, 1st ever Athletic medal for India & 2nd ever individual Olympic gold medal.
Neeraj Chopra of India won Gold in the men’s Javelin final on his Olympics debut.
Olympic GOLD Medal for India came when Neeraj Chopra’s mammoth throw reached 87.58 meter best among all. This is India’s first ever Athletics Gold Medal & only 2nd ever INDIVIDUAL GOLD medal after Abhinav Bindra’s GOLD in shooting in 2008 Beijing.
The 23-year-old farmer’s son from Khandra village near Panipat in Haryana produced a second round throw of 87.58m in the finals to stun the athletics world and end India’s long wait for a track and field medal in the Olympics.
Chopra was the second to throw in the 12-man final and he got off to a fine start with a throw of 87.03m. He then bettered it with 87.58 on his second and 76.79m on his third. The two biggest throws in the final belonged to Chopra.
The biggest shock of the tournament was world No.1 and pre-tournament favourite Johannes Vetter failing to make the top eight from a field of 12 finalists. The German had a poor start, only managing 82.52m with his best effort from the first three attempts, which was just below the cutoff.
Czech Republic’s Jakub Vadlejch won silver with 86.67, while his countryman Vitezslav Vesely won bronze with 85.44.
Earlier on Wednesday, Chopra had become the first Indian javelin thrower in history to qualify for the final at the Olympics after with a throw of 86.65m in his very first attempt, to top the qualification round.
This is now India’s best-ever medal haul at the Olympics, surpassing the six medals (2 silvers and 4 bronzes) they won in London 2012. While PV Sindhu (badminton), Lovlina Borgohain (boxing), the men’s hockey team and Bajrang Punia (wrestling) won bronze medals, Mirabai Chanu (weightlifting) and Ravi Kumar Dahiya (wrestling) won silver medals earlier.
Chopra rose to prominence when he equalled the national record with a throw of 82.23m in the 2016 South Asian Games (where he won gold), aged just 19. A few months later, he would smash that mark en-route creating a world junior record in the IAAF World U20 Championships in Poland with a throw of 86.48m — the throw would have been enough to qualify him for the Rio Olympics, but the event had been held past the cut-off date for qualification. He was, though, the first Indian ever to win a track and field gold at an IAAF World U20 championships.
Narendra Modi@narendramodi: History has been scripted at Tokyo! What @Neeraj_chopra1 has achieved today will be remembered forever. The young Neeraj has done exceptionally well. He played with remarkable passion and showed unparalleled grit. Congratulations to him for winning the Gold. #Tokyo2020
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