Neeraj Chopra creates history, wins first gold for India in track and field
Neeraj Chopra began his quest for medal with a massive throw of 87.03 meters and was leading the pack after the end of first attempt
Tokyo: Indian javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra created history on Saturday as he became the first from the country to win a gold in track and field in the Olympics. He threw a distance of 87.58m to pick the gold at the ongoing Tokyo Olympics.
Neeraj began his quest for medal with a massive throw of 87.03 meters and was leading the pack after the end of first attempt. He bettered it with the second throw of 87.58m. While he wasn't able to improve any further, it was enough to get him the coveted medal. He is now the second Indian after Abhinav Bindra to win a gold medal in individual events.
As a result of this win, India has now won seven medals in the multi-sporting event. In the ongoing Tokyo 2020, Bajrang Punia (Bronze), Mirabai Chanu (silver), PV Sindhu (bronze), Lovlina Borgohain (bronze), men's hockey team ( bronze), and Ravi Kumar Dahiya (silver) have also won medals.
Neeraj had announced his arrival in style in the Tokyo Olympics on Wednesday when he threw a monstrous throw of 86.65m and automatically qualified for the final after just his first attempt.
The Indian javelin thrower had a personal best of 88.07 metres which was also his season-best before starting his Olympics campaign.