India’s Neeraj Chopra on Sunday created history by becoming the first ever from his country to win a medal in men’s javelin throw competition at world athletics championships.
Chopra, with a best throw of 88.13m, sealed a silver medal at the ongoing 2022 World Athletics Championships in Oregon (USA).
The 24-year-old thus became only the second Indian after Anju Bobby George to win a medal at an world athletics championships. Anju won the long jump bronze at the 2003 Paris Worlds.
Anderson Peters defended his title with an outstanding effort of 90.54m to win the gold while Jakub Vadlejch took bronze with a throw of 88.09m.
Chopra won the gold at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics to become the first ever Indian to win a yellow metal at the Summer Games in a track and field event last year. Apart from that, he has also won gold at CWG (2018), Asian Games (2018) and U-20 world junior championships (2016)
Chopra’s first attempt was a foul even as his rival and gold medal contender Anderson Peters of Grenada recorded a throw of 90.21 to go top.
Chopra’s second attempt resulted in 82.39 and he continued improving on the distance with a throw of 86.37 even though his expression made it evident he wasn’t happy with the result. That throw though took him to fourth spot.
Gold medalist Anderson Peters, of Grenada, center, stands with silver medalist Neeraj Chopra, of India, left, and bronze medalist Jakub Vadlejch, of the Czech Republic. (AP Photo)
Peters kept on setting the benchmark with an even better throw of 90.46m in his second attempt while Jakub Vadlejch of Czech Republic started with 85.52m and improved it to 87.23m and then to 88.09 in his third attempt to be placed second after three attempts.
While others bettered their marks, Julian Weber surprisingly ended with a 71.88m throw in his second attempt after starting with an impressive 86.86m.
The 24-year-old Chopra then stormed to the second spot following his fourth attempt that resulted in a throw of 88.13m. And this time, the Indian appeared quite happy, even showing a victory sign to the camera having moved into the silver medal position.
Rohit Yadav, who had also qualified for the final, finished 10th with a best throw of 78.72 after throwing 77.96 (first attempt) and 77.96m (second attempt). The top-8 after three throws get two more attempts.
Chopra’s fifth and final attempts though were fouls while Peters made it to 88.11m through his fifth and upon watching his closest opponent’s final attempt, began celebrating his gold.
However, the Grenadian raised the decibels at the venue by lining up for a final attempt even though the gold was already sealed. He capped it off with a throw of 90.54m – the third time in the final he crossed the 90m mark.