Neeraj’s win has ended India’s century old wait for a track and field medal in the Olympic.
When he glided his way into the final no one had thought he would bring home
the gold. With his win the total medal tally for India has come up to seven
with two silver and three bronze medals — Mirabai Chanu and Ravi Dahiya
(Silver) and PV Sindhu, Lovlina Borgohain and the Indian men’s hockey team
(Bronze) and Chopra has joined the ranks of Abhinav Bindra (2008 Beijing
Olympics) as India’s individual gold winners in the Olympics.
This 23 year
old athlete from Khandra village near Panipat in Haryana, had astound the athletic
world with his amazing performance. His
first throw was 87.03m, followed by the second throw 87.58m and the third throw
was 76.79m. This led him to secure top position among the final 8 out of the 12
throwers, the 8 were then allowed three more attempts while the remaining were
eliminated. Chopra’s fourth and fifth throw was null but he was still in the
lead and by the time he had his sixth throw he had already bagged the gold,
with registering a distance of 84.24m. Czech Republic throwers Jakub Vadlejch
(86.67m) and Vitezslav Vesely (85.44m) secured the silver and bronze
respectively.
Only three
other of his fellow competitors have thrown the javelin farther than he has in
the Tokyo Olympics. Two of them could not get past the qualifying round. Chopra
stepped into the final after topping the qualifying round on 4th
August, Wednesday with an astonishing first throw of 86.59m.
With his
fifth careers best throw Chopra has achieved way beyond what his previous peers
could not. A gold medal in athletics has been far from our reach since the
country started taking part in the Games in 1920 during the Belgium Olympics in
Antwerp.
What a
majestic way to conclude the Tokyo Olympics 2020 with the historic athletic
gold win for India.
