In the early hours of Monday morning, reigning Olympic champion Neeraj Chopra made history by becoming the first Indian to win a gold medal in the World Athletics Championships.
In the men’s javelin final in Budapest, Neeraj concluded with an elusive gold with a best throw of 88.17m.
Following his medal haul, Prime Minister Narendra Modi praised the 25-year-old, calling his accomplishment a “symbol of excellence.”
Neeraj Chopra won Silver medal last year:
Chopra, who won silver at the World Championships last year, started with a foul throw but flew to the gold-medal winning spot following a throw of 88.17 m in his second attempt, and he remained atop after that.
The existing Commonwealth Games champion, Pakistan’s Arshad Nadeem, came the closest to threaten Neeraj’s gold bid after bouncing back from a slow start with his best throw of 87.72 m on his third try.
The Indian failed to expand his advantage at the top, with his remaining attempts of 86.32m, 84.64m, 87.73m, and 83.98m, while Nadeem held his second place from the third round onwards, resulting in a 1-2 for the Indo-Pak combo until the conclusion. Jakub Vadlejch (86.67 m) of the Czech Republic won bronze.
PM Modi appreciates Neeraj Chopra Gold:
PM Modi resorted to social media early Monday morning to give a precious message to Neeraj, congratulating him on his incredible gold medal haul.
“The talented @Neeraj_chopra1 is an example of excellence.” His focus, precision, and passion make him an athletic champion and a symbol of unsurpassed perfection throughout the sports world. Congrats to him on winning gold at the World Athletics Championships,” he wrote.
Along with PM Modi, several other social media users praised Neeraj Chopra for his gold. Here are some tweets by users.
A historic Gold for India:
Neeraj became India’s first gold medalist in the World Athletics Championships on Monday.
With the victory, India now has medals in every colour at the tournament, including gold and silver for Neeraj and bronze for Anju Bobby George, who came third in the women’s long jump at the 2003 World Championships.
Neeraj is also the second Indian, after Abhinav Bindra, to simultaneously hold an Olympic gold medal and a World Championships title.
Bindra won the World Championships when he was 23 and the Olympics when he was 25.
He is also the third javelin thrower in history to do so, behind Jan Zelezny of the Czech Republic and Andreas Thorkildsen of Norway.
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