Olympic champion Neeraj Chopra made history yet again on Sunday, July 24, when he won silver in the javelin throw final with a best throw of 88.13 meters to finish second in Oregon, United States.
Neeraj Chopra broke into a smile after his fourth-round throw of 88.13m. The tension was somewhat eased after he moved into the provisional podium place in second position following his best throw of the men’s javelin throw final in Eugene, US.
While a nation was asleep, the reigning Olympic champion created history after becoming the first ever Indian athlete to win a silver at the World athletics championships with his best effort of 88.13m on early Sunday morning (India time) to etch his name in the record books.
He, however, failed in his endeavor to become the first javelin thrower after Norwegian track and field great Andreas Thorkildsen to hold both the Olympics and World Championships titles at the same time. Thorkildsen had achieved the feat at the Berlin edition of the Worlds meet.
However, it was Grenadian Anderson Peters who took away the honors after effortlessly throwing the spear to a 90m mark thrice to clinch the gold. Anderson, the reigning World champion, saved the best for his last, launching the spear to a distance of 90.54m in his sixth and final attempt.
This was the first time Neeraj has made it to the Worlds final. In his debut outing at the 2017 Worlds in London, he had failed to qualify for the final round. He couldn’t clear the automatic qualification mark of 83m, with his best throw recorded being 82.26m. Neeraj had missed the 2019 Worlds in Doha after failing to recover from elbow surgery.
