New Delhi, July 24:
India’s Neeraj Chopra won the country’s only second medal at the National Athletics Championships, finishing with a historic silver in the men’s javelin final. Neeraj’s throw of 88.13m in his fourth attempt secured him of not only a podium finish but also ended India’s 29-year-long wait for a medal at the World’s after Anju Bobby George’s bronze medal finish in the women’s long jump way back in 2003.
Trailing outside the top three after his first three attempts, Chopra’s massive throw escalated him to the second position, only behind reigning World Champion Anderson Peters of Grenada, who took gold with a humongous throw of 90.54m. In fact, all his attempts breached the 90m-mark.
Neeraj, who required only one attempt in the qualifiers to book his place in the final, was always going to be a strong medal contender, but after his first three attempts, those hopes had partially diminished. Neeraj began with a foul, and followed it with a second attempt of 82.38m. He improved on it with a decent throw of 86.37 in his third but was still outside the top three, behind Peterson, Jakub Valdlejch of Czech Republic and Germany’s Julian Weber.
However, the fourth attempt is where things turned drastically for Neeraj. Chopra came running, took his position and unleashed a huge scream. With a fist pump in the air, Neeraj knew he had gotten this one right, and his assessment couldn’t have been more spot on. The throw had surpassed Valdlejch’s best by just that much. Neeraj’s fifth and sixth attempts resulted in two more fouls but it did not matter. Vadlejch’s best of 88.03 secured him a bronze medal finish, followed by Weber at fourth.
Besides Neeraj, India’s second participant in the event Rohit Yadav bowed out finishing 10th with a best throw of 78.62m. Although Rohit was eliminated from the top six, his showing was an huge improvement. Rohit’s first throw reached 77.96m, before he improved on it marginally by hitting the 78.05m mark. In what would turn out to be his third and final attempt, Rohit finished with his best effort of the competition.
