Olympic champion Neeraj Chopra scripted yet another record as he became only the 2nd Indian and first male track and field athlete to triumph a medal in the World Championships by securing silver in the javelin throw final.
Neeraj Chopra was out of the medal race till the 3rd attempt in the men’s javelin final at the World Athletics Championships at Oregon.
However, the Olympic champion and million other Indians knew the show was not over.
Neeraj Chopra managed to put an 88.13m throw that straightaway put him in the second spot only behind Anderson Peters.
The Tokyo Olympics Gold medal-winner tried his best but flunked to beat Peters, who surpassed the 90m-mark astonishing 3 times in the final – for gold in his final 2 attempts however ended with India’s first-ever silver medal in World Championships.
Neeraj’s 88.13m throw was a whisker short of his 88.39m throw that triumphed him gold last year in the Olympics. Nevertheless, it was enough to give him his first World Championship medal and India’s second overall.
Chopra commenced with a foul throw and had 82.39m and 86.37m to be at 4th following 3 rounds. He got his flow back with a massive fourth-round throw of 88.13m, his 4th career-best effort.
Defending champion Anderson Peters of Grenada triumphed gold with a best throw of 90.54m whilst Olympic silver winner Jakub Vadlejch of Czech Republic took the bronze with 88.09m.
The other Indian, Rohit Yadav concluded at 10th with a best throw of 78.72m. Rohit had finished 11th overall in the qualification round with a best throw of 80.42m.
