New Delhi. India’s star javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra created history by winning the gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics. Neeraj Chopra is the first Indian athlete to win an Olympic medal in athletics. Neeraj Chopra won the gold medal in the javelin throw 87.58 meters in the final match. Neeraj Chopra covered this distance in his second throw. Neeraj Chopra had made it to the number 1 place in the first throw by covering a distance of 87.03, but after that he improved his performance in the next throw. Neeraj Chopra won India’s first gold medal in Tokyo.
No athlete was seen around Neeraj Chopra in the Jelvin Throw final. Neeraj Chopra was the only player whose throw was above 87 meters. Jakub Wadelich of Czech Republic finished second and third with a distance of 86.67m and Viteslav Vesli with a distance of 85.44m.
India’s first medal in Olympic athletics
Let us tell you that Neeraj Chopra is only the second player to win an individual Olympic gold medal for India. Shooter Abhinav Bindra won the gold medal in Beijing Olympics and now Neeraj Chopra has accomplished this charisma. Neeraj Chopra has won India’s first medal in Olympic athletics. With this, he ended India’s wait of more than 100 years to win an Olympic medal in athletics. After winning the gold medal, Neeraj took the tricolor around the field and celebrated it.
Neeraj was considered a strong medal contender even before the Olympics and the 23-year-old had lived up to the expectations and made it to the finals by throwing 86.59m javelin in his first attempt in the qualification round. In the final, he threw 87.03m in his first attempt and was leading from the start.
In the third attempt, he could only throw 76.79 meters while in the fourth attempt he was fouled. He threw 84.24 meters in the sixth attempt but before that his gold medal was confirmed. India participated in athletics for the first time at the Antwerp Olympics but since then till Rio 2016, none of its athletes had won a medal. The veterans Milkha Singh and PT Usha had missed by a small margin in 1960 and 1984 respectively.
