The boy with a golden arm showed his golden magic on the field of Tokyo. Neeraj’s gold medal throw of 87.58m fell short of his personal best of 88.07m, a national record he set this year.
Star Javelin Thrower Neeraj Chopra on Saturday became only the second Indian to win an individual gold in the Olympics, out-performing the field by some distance to immortalize himself as the first track-and-field Games medal-winner for the country.
The 23-year-old son of a farmer from Khandra village near Panipat in Haryana, produced a second-round throw of 87.58m in the finals to stun the athletics world and end India's wait for a track and field medal in the Olympics. Overflowing with confidence with hardly any nerves on display, Chopra walked in like a rockstar to make the Tokyo Games, India's best-ever Olympic outing in what was the country's final competitive outing at the ongoing edition.
He was the country's seventh medal and first gold in this Olympics and he joined shooter Abhinav Bindra in an elite and very hard-to-reach club of India's individual gold winners in the showpiece. He joined the sports to lose weight and has become the icon for our whole country.