By Elton Gomes
At the Sotteville Athletics meet in France, Indian javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra bagged a gold medal and outperformed a competitive field that included 2012 London Olympics gold-medallist Keshorn Walcott.
Chopra managed to get a distance of 85.17 metres on his throw which put him way ahead of other athletes. Moldovas Andrian Mardare came in second with a throw of 81.48 metres, while Lithuanias Edis Matusevicius took the third spot by getting 79.31 metres on his throw.
Wishes poured in from everywhere for Chopra. “Well done Neeraj…keep going…Congratulations to Neeraj and coach Uwe Hohn (former World Record Holder in javelin throw)…” AFI President Adille Sumariwala tweeted praising the youngster, PTI reported.
Union sports minister Rajyavardhan Rathore was confident that Chopra will win more medals.
The Sports Authority of India also conveyed their best wishes.
Although Chopra won gold with the 85.17 metre throw, this was not his best performance. The 20-year-old athlete had earlier broken his own national record with a throw of 87.43 metres at the IAAF Diamond League where he finished fourth in the season-opening leg.
Nonetheless, Chopra delivered an outstanding performance and never faltered in a single attempt. His best score of 85.17 metres came in the fifth attempt, but he came close to winning in his third attempt itself. Chopra had a fantastic start to the year after winning gold in the recently held Commonwealth Games in Australia.
Chopra struck gold after a throw of 86.47 metres in the men’s javelin throw final at the Games. Chopra became the first Indian javelin thrower to win gold at the Games. Since then, Chopra has always given Indian fans something to cheer about. All eyes will be on Chopra as he heads to the Asian Games that will be held from August 18 in Indonesia.
Elton Gomes is a staff writer at Qrius