Neeraj Chopra ends India’s 100-year wait for an Olympic medal in athletics, wins gold

A pre-tournament medal contender, the 23-year-old Chopra had fuelled country’s expectations by topping the qualification round with a stunning first round throw of 86.59m.

In the finals, Chopra began his quest for medal with a massive throw of 87.03 meters and was leading the pack after the end of first attempt. He bettered it with the second throw of 87.58m. While he wasn’t able to improve any further, it was enough to get him the coveted medal.

Chopra’s medal is only India’s second ever individual gold at the Olympics, the first coming in 2008 via Abhinav Bindra’s 10-meter air rifle victory.

Prime Minister Modi was the first to congratulate the Chopra, tweeting

Anurag Thakur, the Union Minister for Youth Affairs and Sports, lauded Chopra on scripting history at the Games.

The Union Minister of Law and Justice Kiren Rijiju also took to Twitter to congratulate Chopra, and he also said that late Milkha Singh’s wish has finally been fulfilled.

Three track and field athletes were part of the five-member Indian team at the 1920 Olympics in Antwerp, Belgium — the other two being wrestlers. Since then, no Indian had won a medal in athletics.

The International Olympic Committee still credits Norman Pritchard’s 200m and 200m hurdles silver medals in the 1900 Paris Olympics to India, though various research – including the records of then IAAF (now World Athletics) – showed that he had competed for Great Britain.

A farmer’s son from Khandra village near Panipat in Haryana who took up athletics to shed flab, Chopra scripted history by winning the elusive medal, which the likes of late Milkha Singh and P T Usha let it slip from their grasp in 1964 and 1984 editions.

Chopra’s performance on Saturday was one of the best performances by an Indian in the Olympics, as he finished ahead of gold medal favourite and 2017 world champion Johannes Vetter of Germany.