Javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra 1st Indian to win Olympic gold medal in athletics

Star javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra on Saturday became only the second Indian to win an individual gold in the Olympics outperforming the field by some distance to immortalise himself as the first trackandfield Games medalwinner for the countryThe 23yearold son of a farmer from Khandra village near Panipat in Haryana produced a second round throw of 8758m in the finals to stun the athletics world and end Indias 100year wait for a track and field medal in the OlympicsBrimming with confidence with hardly any nerves on display Chopra walked in like a rockstar to make the Tokyo Games Indias best ever Olympic outing in what was the countrys final competitive outing at the ongoing editionHis was the countrys seventh medal and first gold in this Olympics and he joined shooter Abhinav Bindra 2008 Beijing Games in an elite and very hardtoreach club of Indias individual gold winners in the showpieceWith this the country surpassed the previous best haul of six medals achieved in the 2012 London Games Apart from Chopras gold India have won to silver and four bronze medalsCzech Republic throwers Jakub Vadlejch 8667m and Vitezslav Vesely 8544m took the silver and bronze respectivelyChopra came into the final as a medal contender after topping the qualification round on Wednesday with a stunning first round throw of 8659mBut few would have thought that he would bludgeon his way to gold in such a dominant fashion at the grandest of the stageJust like in the qualification round three days back Chopra began with a bang by sending the spear to a distance of 8703m and then improved it to 8758m his best of the day which none in the field could matchHis third throw was a poor 7676m he then fouled his next two attempts before a final effort of 8424mBy the time the Nordic javelin left his right hand in his second attempt he knew that it was going the farthest among all and he raised both his arms in jubilation confident that the job had been doneAfter the end of the event Chopra ran towards the Indian contingent in the stands with raised fists and wrapped himself with the tricolour to run a short lap of honourSeason leader and pretournament gold favourite Johannes Vetter of Germany who had thrown the spear to 90m plus distances seven times between April and June was shockingly eliminated after the first three throws as he was placed ninth with a best effort of 8252mTop eight after the first three throws get three more attempts while the remaining four in the 12man final are eliminatedChopra even clapped for Vetter who is his friend off the field when he came out for his attempt but it was just not the day for the GermanPakistans Arshad Nadeem finished fifth with a best throw of 8462mWith his fifth career best throw Chopra has done what the likes of late Milkha Singh and P T Usha could not do in 1960 and 1984 editionsToday is truly a momentous day for Indian athletics and for the country Nothing is bigger than an Olympic medal that too a gold We have waited for long but finally achieved our goal Athletics Federation of India President Adille SumariwallaI hope Neerajs gold will change the landscape and profile of athletics in the country and our standing in the worldNo Indian has won a medal in athletics since the country started taking part in the Games in 1920 in Antwerp BelgiumThree track and field athletes were part of the fivemember team the other two being wrestlers in that GamesThe International Olympic Committee still credits Norman Pritchards 200m and 200m hurdles silver medals in the 1900 Paris Olympics to India though various researches including the records of then IAAF now World Athletics showed that he had competed for Great BritainPritchard was not an Indian and the countrys first Olympic participation under a national Olympic body was in 1920Since then track and field athletes have been an integral part of Indian contingents in almost all the editions of the GamesAlso Read Tokyo Olympics Indian wrestler Bajrang Punia wins bronze medal beats Kazakhstans Niyazbekov 80This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever