At just 25 years old, Neeraj Chopra keeps on adding to his already king-sized legacy. The Olympics gold medallist from Tokyo 2021, Neeraj now has a Worlds gold medal after securing a top-podium finish in men’s javelin at the World Athletics Championships. As India went to sleep Sunday night, Neeraj ensured he took away the nation’s Monday blues when an entire sports-crazy country woke up to his glorious achievement. By hitting a winning 88.17m mark in only his second attempt, Neeraj became the reigning Olympic and World Champion in javelin, establishing himself as arguably the greatest Indian athlete of all time.
After coming close last year in Eugene, Neeraj walked away with a silver medal behind Anderson Peters, but found retribution in Budapest last night, piping Pakistan’s Arshad Nadeem, who secured a second-place finish with 87.82m to win silver. On Friday, Neeraj needed just one attempt as he hit a season best mark of 88.77m to not only qualify for the final but also seal his berth at the Paris Olympics 2024, and continued his juggernaut two days later. Starting off with a foul, Neeraj conjured courage, energy, speed, momentum, and combined all three into a gold-clinching throw. The moment the javelin left his hands with the velocity thudding him on to the ground, Neeraj knew he had aced it. Out came the scream and his hands went up in the air in celebration even before the javelin could land. He may not have hit the 90m mark, but Neeraj wouldn’t mind, as he brought back a gold medal that would be long talked about.
Watch Neeraj’s gold medal-winning throw below:
“Everyone kept saying this was the only medal left, and I’ve won it today. Only the Twitter question was left (hitting the 90-meter mark) but winning this medal was more important. Now that we have it, there are other tournaments as well and I will put more effort into them,” Neeraj said after the win.
“I was pretty sure that I would keep getting good results till the last throw because I had been consistent but somewhere there was some difficulty. I thought I would execute my first throw well but there was some technical fault in it. And when the first throw was erred, I pushed myself. I was a little concerned about my groin, although it did not hamper my speed. Thank you so much for staying awake till late to support me. This medal is for India.”
Neeraj received stiff competition from both Ashraf and Czech Republic’s Jakub Vadlejch, who took bronze. So dominant was Neeraj that he reached safe zone once he knew he had nailed his second throw. Returning from a knee injury and elbow surgery, Ashraf pushed hard and saw a glimmer of hope in his third attempt, but could not better it as his remaining three throws recorded 87.15m, a foul and 81.86 respectively. On the contrary, Neeraj’s third went 86.65m away, 84.64, in 4th, a staggering 87.73m in Round 5 and 83.98 in the final round. History was created and at the centre of it was India’s most decorated track and field athlete, who has now won every major accolade that there is to win.
Neeraj’s wasn’t the only feat that stood out. His Indian compatriots and fellow javelin throwers Kishore Jena and DP Manu bagged the fifth and sixth positions with 84.77m and 84.14m throws individually. Parul Chaudhary may not have dished out the best result, finishing 11th in the women’s 3000m steeplechase, but with a timing of 9.15.31s, sealed a place for herself at the Paris Olympics. The icing on the cake though was applied by the men’s relay team as the quarter of Anas, Amoj, Ajmal and Rajesh secured a historic 5th place finish and raised the bar.
