Neeraj Chopra Ends India’s 100-Year Wait for Athletics Olympic Gold

The javelin thrower’s gold medal is India’s second at the Olympics, after Abhinav Bindra’s in Beijing 2008.

New Delhi: Neeraj Chopra, the javelin thrower, has given India its first gold Olympic medal in athletics, ending a wait of 100 years, on Saturday, August 7.

A strong medal contender, the 23-year-old Chopra fuelled country’s expectations by topping the qualification round with a stunning first round throw of 86.59m.

With a throw of 87.03 metres, Chopra was by far the strongest on the field today.

With this, the country surpassed the previous best haul of six medal achieved in the 2012 London Games.

Czech Republic throwers Jakub Vadlejch (86.67m) and Vitezslav Vesely (85.44m) took the silver and bronze respectively.

Three track and field athletes were part of the five-member Indian team at the 1920 Olympics in Antwerp, Belgium, the other two being wrestlers. Since then, no Indian has won a medal in athletics.

This is also India’s second ever individual gold medal, after shooter Abhinav Bindra in Beijing 2008.

Season leader and pre-tournament gold favourite Johannes Vetter of Germany, who had thrown the javelin to 90m plus distances seven times between April and June, was eliminated after the first three throws as he was placed ninth with a best effort of 82.52m.

Top eight after the first three throws get three more attempts while the remaining four in the 12-man final are eliminated.


The International Olympic Committee still credits Norman Pritchard’s 200m and 200m hurdles silver medals in the 1900 Paris Olympics to India though various research, including the records of then IAAF (now World Athletics), showed that he had competed for Great Britain.

A farmer’s son from Khandra village near Panipat in Haryana who took up athletics to shed flab, Chopra scripted history by winning the elusive medal.


“I am at my first Olympic Games, and I feel very good. In warm-up my performance wasn’t so good, but then (in the qualifying round) my first throw had a good angle, and was a perfect throw,” Chopra had said after the qualifying round on Wednesday.

“I will need to focus on the throw, and try to repeat this (performance) with a higher score,” said the youngster who came into the Olympics with the fourth best throw (88.07m) this year.

Chopra’s performance on Saturday was one of the best performances by an Indian in the Olympics, as he finished ahead of gold medal favourite and 2017 world champion Johannes Vetter of Germany.

(With PTI inputs)