India’s Neeraj Chopra became just the second Indian after Abhinav Bindra to win an individual gold medal at the Olympics. Neeraj threw a whopping 87.58m throw in his second attempt to win the men’s javelin crown at the Tokyo Olympics on Saturday (August 7). Czech Republic’s Jakub Vadlejech and Vitezslav Vesely won the silver and bronze medal respectively. Neeraj had the second best throw of the final as well, achieving a distance of 87.03m to make his first athlete from India to win an Olympic gold medal.
Norway’s Andreas Thorkildsen holds the Olympic record with a 90.57m, which he achieved in Beijing Olympics in 2008. While the world record, which is 98.48m is held by Czech Republic’s Jan Železný, a milestone scripted in 1996.
The event got underway with Moldovan athlete Andrian Mardare throwing 81.16m in his opening attempt. Neeraj too started with a bang as he opened his account in the finals with a gigantic 87.03m throw. This was better than what he threw in the qualifying round.
.@Neeraj_chopra1 creates history by becoming the 1st Indian Track & Field athlete to clinch at the #Olympics with a throw of 87.58m
His dedication & hard work has paid off and has given it’s 2nd individual Olympic #Gold medal
Perfect podium finish for #IND at #Tokyo2020 pic.twitter.com/ZNZ7ZRFlCJ
— SAIMedia (@Media_SAI) August 7, 2021
So far only German javelin thrower Julian Weber came close to Neeraj with a 85.30 attempt. His closest opponent Vetter records 82.52m in the first attempt. Pakistan’s Nadeem starts with a poor run-up but still manages to eclipse 82.40 in his opening attempt.
Chopra won the country’s seventh medal and first gold in this Olympics and joined shooter Abhinav Bindra (2008 Beijing Games) as India’s individual gold winners in the showpiece. With this, the country surpassed the previous best haul of six medal achieved in the 2012 London Games.
Czech Republic throwers Jakub Vadlejch (86.67m) and Vitezslav Vesely (85.44m) took the silver and bronze respectively. Chopra came into the final as a medal contender after topping the qualification round on Wednesday with a stunning first round throw of 86.59m.
But few would have thought he would bludgeon his way to gold in such a dominant fashion at the grandest of the stage. Season leader and pre-tournament gold favourite Johannes Vetter of Germany, who had thrown the javelin to 90m plus distances seven times between April and June, was eliminated after the first three throws as he was placed ninth with a best effort of 82.52m.
Top eight after the first three throws get three more attempts while the remaining four in the 12-man final are eliminated. With his fifth career best throw, Chopra has done something which the likes of late Milkha Singh and PT Usha could not do in 1960 and 1984 editions.
No Indian has won a medal in athletics since the country started taking part in the Games in 1920 in Antwerp, Belgium. Three track and field athletes were part of the five-member team – the other two being wrestlers – in that Games.
The International Olympic Committee still credits Norman Pritchard’s 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 Britain.
In any case, Pritchard was not an Indian and the country’s first Olympic participation under a national Olympic body was in 1920. Since then, track and field athletes have been an integral part of Indian contingents in almost all the editions of the Games.
(with PTI inputs)
