India’s 12 years wait for an individual gold medal at the Olympics has final ended as Neeraj Chopra came first in the javelin throw event.
The 23-year-old registered a best attempt of 87.58m to finish ahead of Czech Republic duo of Jakub Vadlejch and Vitezslav Vesely.
Chopra started off with a throw of 87.03, taking the lead after the first round of throws itself. If that was a good start, he went even better with his second attempt, registering a throw of 87.58. His third throw was 76.79.
Neeraj Chopra’s fourth and fifth attempts were foul throws, but he continued to top the leaderboard. His last throw was a formality with all his competitors having already finished their attempts, and he recorded 84.24 with the attempt.
With this gold medal India’s tally at the Tokyo olympics has increased to seven.
This is the country’s highest ever me, beating the tally of six medals won at the London Games in 2012.
Shooter Abhinav Bindra won gold medal in 2008 Beijing Games.