Budapest, Hungary- At the World Athletics Championships, Neeraj Chopra won the gold medal in the men’s javelin throw competition, creating history for Indian athletics.
On Sunday, Aug 27, India’s top javelin thrower hit the 88.17-meter mark in his second attempt, sealing his victory in the competition and earning his country its first gold medal. Despite getting off to a bad start with a foul, the 25-year-old continued and struck distances of 88.17 meters, 86.32 meters, 84.64 meters, 87.73 meters, and 83.98 meters.
Arshad Nadeem of Pakistan and Jakub Vadlejch of the Czech Republic, two of his fiercest rivals, came in second and third, respectively. With a best throw of 87.82 meters, Nadeem won the silver medal, while Vadlejch won the bronze with a throw of 86.67 meters.
Chopra’s several accomplishments already include gold medals from the Olympics (Tokyo 2020), the Diamond League title (2022), and the Junior World Championships (2016). And winning gold this year adds to that list.
After the competition, Chopra expressed his thoughts in an interview:
“This was great,” Chopra said.
“After the Olympic gold, I really wanted to win the world championships. I just wanted to throw further. This is brilliant for the national team but it was my dream to win gold at the world championships.”
“This has been a great championships for India and I am proud to bring another title to my country,” the ace javelin thrower continued. “I don’t think I am the best thrower here. I wanted to throw more tonight. I wanted to throw more than 90m tonight but it needs all parts of the puzzle to be there. I couldn’t put it all together this evening. Maybe next time.”
Along with Chopra, two more Indian javelin throwers, Kishore Jena and DP Manu, also basked in glory as they got fifth and sixth places, respectively. Jena placed fifth with a personal best of 84.77 meters, while Manu placed sixth after throwing a distance of 84.14 meters on his fifth attempt.