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Olympic champion Neeraj Chopra created history on Sunday, becoming the first Indian to win a gold medal at the World Athletics Championships. Neeraj bagged the honor with a throw of 88.17m in the men's javelin final in Budapest, Hungary.
Neeraj, 25, achieved his best throw in his second attempt. He started with a foul, but subsequently registered throws of 88.17m, 86.32m, 84.64m, 87.73m and 83.98m. Following his historic triumph, Chopra is now only the second Indian after shooter Abhinav Bindra to simultaneously hold the Olympics and World Championships title.
While Neeraj took the gold at the World Athletics Championships, Pakistan's Arshad Nadeem won the silver and Jakub Vadlejch of the Czech Republic the bronze. For the first time in history, three Indians finished in the top eight - Kishore Jena (84.77m) and DP Manu (84.14m) were fifth and sixth respectively.
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A number of stars from the Indian cricketing fraternity hailed Neeraj for his fabulous achievement. Here is a compilation of some reactions from social media platform X.
“It was my dream to win gold at the World Championships” - Neeraj Chopra
Reflecting on his historic triumph, Neeraj admitted that it was his dream to win the World Championships after having clinched gold at the Olympics.
"This was great. After the Olympic gold I really wanted to win the world championships. I just wanted to throw further. This is brilliant for the national team but it was my dream to win gold at the World Championships," he was quoted as saying by Reuters.
"This has been a great championships for India and I am proud to bring another title to my country. I don't think I am the best thrower here. I wanted to throw more tonight. I wanted to throw more than 90m tonight but it needs all parts of the puzzle to be there. I couldn't put it all together this evening. Maybe next time,” Neeraj added about his winning effort.
Besides Neeraj, Anju Bobby George is the only other Indian to win a medal at the World Athletics Championships. George took bronze in the women's long jump back in 2003 in Paris.
