It’s true that Indian athletes are going from strength to strength and their records serve as a testament to the fact. Our athletes are making the headlines for all the right reasons. They are making our country proud by winning medals. Neeraj Chopra made India proud by winning Gold at Tokyo Olympics 2020.
Let’s congratulate our Star javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra who won the men’s javelin today for India’s first-ever Olympic athletics gold. For the unversed, he is also a soldier in the Indian Army.
“The golden victory of Subedar Neeraj Chopra at the Olympics brings laurels for the Indian Army. He performed like a true soldier at the Olympics. It is indeed a historic and proud moment for the entire country including the Indian Armed Forces! Many congratulations to him,” Defence Minister Rajnath Singh tweeted.
In this article, we will take a look at the nine lesser-known facts of Neeraj Chopra.
- For the uninitiated, Mr Chopra is a Subedar with 4 Rajputana Rifles in the Indian Army. The 23-year-old is a graduate of DAV College located in Chandigarh.
- Mr Chopra is the son of a farmer from Haryana. After making India proud, the state government announced it would honour the athlete with ₹ 6 crores.
- He announced his arrival in the Olympics with the fourth-best throw of the year and certainly lived up to his expectations.
- Neeraj Chopra is the first athlete representing India to have clinched the yellow metal in the javelin throw at both the Commonwealth Games and the Asian Games. He earned a win at the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, Australia, and the 2018 Asian Games in Indonesia.
- The 23-year-old Panipat-born athlete became the first Indian competitor to clinch a junior world title in athletics when he claimed gold in the javelin throw at the 2016 World Junior Championships in Poland.
- It is to be noted that he developed an interest in the sport in 2011. He was inspired by watching athletes practice throwing the javelin in Haryana, as per his bio on the Olympics website.
- The 23-year-old scripted history as he managed a winning best of 87.58 metres to go one better than the country’s previous best.
- Neeraj Chopra’s win is the country’s first gold medal at the ongoing Tokyo Olympics.
- It is worth mentioning here that it is India’s second individual gold medal in its Olympic history after Abhinav Bindra’s gold in Beijing 2008.