With Neeraj’s gold, the Tokyo Olympics became the best outing for the country, winning seven medals — one gold, two silver and four bronze. India has won six medals at the London Games in 2012.
TFM Desk
Javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra scripted history on Saturday as he became the first Indian to win Olympic Gold in Athletics. The country celebrated the feat with jubilation.
Joining the bandwagon, the Government of Manipur announced a cash reward of Rs one crore for the sensational athlete.
With Neeraj’ gold, the Tokyo Olympics became the best outing for the country, winning seven medals — one gold, two silver and four bronze. India has won six medals at the London Games in 2012.
The 23-year-old Javelin thrower gave his best throw of 87.58 to bag the gold medal. With this, he has become the first Indian athlete to win gold ever and India’s second ever individual Olympic gold medalist after shooter Abhinav Bindra, who bagged gold in Beijing 2008.
President Ram Nath Kovind, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, union sports minister Anurag Thakur and an absolutely ecstatic India congratulated Neeraj Chopra for making India proud.
Born on December 24, 1997, the story of Neeraj taking to sports is quite interesting. An overweight 12-year-old boy from Haryana’s Khandra village, who was persistently persuaded by his family members to take up sports.
He ultimately gave in to all the badgering and began training at the Shivaji Stadium in Panipat. That was until he saw a few seniors throwing javelins at the stadium and decided to try his luck at javelin throw.
Fortunately for him, that sport truly captured his fancy as he began training rigorously to get into better shape. He grew up to become India’s first ever javelin thrower to win a gold medal at the 2018 Commonwealth Games and 2018 Asian Games.
He is also the current national record holder (88.07m – 2021) and current world junior record holder (86.48m – 2016). His other achievements include — Gold Medal at Asian Games 2018, Gold Medal at Commonwealth Games 2018, Gold Medal at Asian Athletics Championships 2017, Gold Medal at World U-20 Athletics Championships 2016, Gold Medal at South Asian Games 2016, and a Silver Medal at Asian Junior Championships 2016.
As per official source, the union government has invested approximately Rs 1,81,91,978 on Neeraj through various programmes since the Rio games in 2016.