Neeraj Chopra Paris Olympics 2024: Date of 7 August 2021… This was the date when Neeraj threw 87.58 meters in the Tokyo Olympics and won the gold medal for India. He became India’s biggest star athlete overnight. This was the first gold medal in India’s athletics (track and field) history. It was Neeraj whose gold medal brought the craze of javelin in India. After Neeraj, javelin throwers like Kishore Jena, DP Manu also emerged. Kishore Jena also secured a quota for the Paris Olympics, but he missed out on making it to the final round.
Before Neeraj, there were many occasions when India came close to winning a medal in athletics (track and field). Milkha Singh (Rome Olympics 1960) finished fourth in the 400 meter race. He then missed the medal by a small margin of 0.1 seconds.
On the other hand, PT Usha was close to winning a medal in athletics in the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. She finished fourth in the 400m hurdles final and missed the bronze medal by just 1/100 second. When Neeraj won the gold medal in Tokyo, he gave India hope that Indian athletes also have the potential.
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When Neeraj Chopra won the gold medal in Tokyo, he fulfilled Milkha Singh’s dream, ‘Flying Sikh’ Milkha Singh died a few months before Neeraj won the gold. As long as Milkha was alive, his dream was that an Indian would win a medal in athletics (track and field).
However, Neeraj won the silver medal in Paris and made history as he is the first Indian player to win gold and silver medals in back to back individual events.
On 8 August 2024, Paris Neeraj won the silver medal for India by throwing the javelin 89.45 meters away. At the same time, Arshad Nadeem of Pakistan threw the javelin 92.97 meters away and won the gold. At the same time, Anderson Peters of Grenada won the bronze medal of this event by throwing the javelin 88.54 meters.
Neeraj had earlier won the gold medal in the Tokyo Olympics by throwing the javelin 87.58 meters away. But this time in Paris, he threw the javelin even farther than the Tokyo throw, but he got the silver medal. However, he definitely improved his Olympic record. Now the challenge before Neeraj is when will he cross the 90 meter barrier. Because Pakistani Arshad Nadeem has made an Olympic record by throwing 92.97 meters.
The world record for javelin throw is registered in the name of a player from the Czech Republic. Three-time world champion and Olympic champion, Czech Republic’s legendary athlete Jan Zelezny registered the world record in his name by throwing 98.48 meters during an athletics competition in Germany in 1996. This record still stands till date.
These medals are in the name of Neeraj Chopra
Neeraj Chopra maintained his dominance even after winning the gold medal in the Tokyo Olympics. He also won gold medals in the Hangzhou Asian Games 2023 and the Budapest World Athletics Championship.
Paris Olympics 2024 – Silver Medal
Hangzhou Asian Games 2023 – Gold Medal
Budapest World Athletics Championship- Gold Medal
Tokyo Olympics 2020- Gold Medal
Jakarta Asian Games 2018- Gold Medal
Gold Coast Commonwealth Games 2018- Gold Medal
Asian Athletics Championships 2017- Gold Medal
World U-20 Athletics Championships 2016- Gold Medal
South Asian Games 2016- Gold Medal
Asian Junior Championship 2016- Silver Medal
After Neeraj, Kishore Jena and DP Manu emerged
Talking about the javelin throwers emerging in India after Neeraj Chopra, the names of Kishore Jena and DP Manu are included in them. Kishore Jena won the silver medal in Hangzhou Asiad. On 4 October 2023, he won the silver medal with a record throw of 87.54 meters in the Hangzhou Asian Games. He reached the qualifying round of the Paris Olympics. But he could throw the javelin only 80.73 meters, thus he missed the target of 84 meters (or top 12 players) to qualify for the final.
Talking about DP Manu, he finished fifth in javelin throw at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham. Overall in 2022, he threw the javelin over 80 meters in five events. In July 2023, he threw the javelin over 81 meters to win silver at the Asian Athletics Championships held in Bangkok. He was selected for the 2023 World Athletics Championships in Budapest in August 2023. He qualified for the final with a throw of 81.31 meters, then finished sixth with a throw of 84.14 meters.
That is, one thing is clear, Neeraj’s gold medal in Tokyo Olympics has opened the doors of hope for India in athletics.
Source (PTI) (NDTV) (HINDUSTANTIMES)