Neeraj Chopra Creates History, Wins First Olympics Gold In Athletics For India

New Delhi: The 23-year-old Neeraj produced the second throw of 87.58m in the finals to stun the athletics world and end India’s 100-year wait for a track and field medal in the Olympics. Neeraj Chopra bagged a historic Gold medal in the men's javelin throw event to make the Tokyo 2020 Games India's best-ever Olympics campaign. Chopra scripted history on Saturday by becoming independent India's first athlete to win a medal in the track and field discipline.

 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 winner in the showpiece. With this, the country surpassed the previous best haul of six medals achieved in the 2012 London Games. Neeraj Chopra will be taking the flag for India at the Tokyo Olympics closing ceremony.

Neeraj was at the No.1 position after all athletes completed their first attempts with an 87.03m throw. The Indian bettered his performance in the second attempt with an 87.58m throw which kept him in the lead. Neeraj's third attempt was 76.79m. Neeraj maintained his top spot when 12 athletes were trimmed to 8. The top athletes advanced to get three more attempts. Neeraj's fourth and fifth attempts were not up to the mark and the athlete chose to deliberately cross over the line so that the distances don't count on both occasions. The Indian continued to be the best thrower at the end of round 5 by virtue of his monster throw in the second attempt, which turned out to be enough to give India historic gold at the Tokyo Games. A pre-tournament medal contender,  Chopra fuelled the country's expectations by topping the qualification round with a stunning first-round throw of 86.59m.