Neeraj Chopra became the first Indian to win a World Athletics Championships gold medal to add to his Olympic gold.
Neeraj Chopra added World Athletics Championship gold to his already impressive resume. Chopra was previously one of just two Indians with a World Championships medal, and now he is the only one from his country with two medals and the first to earn gold. Chopra began the final in Budapest on Sunday with a foul throw. His second throw, though, proved to be the winning one, as he threw the javelin 88.17 metres. It enabled him stay ahead of Pakistan’s Arshad Nadeem, who also won silver for his country, and Czech Republic’s Jakub Vadlejch.
Neeraj was awarded gold in an official podium ceremony following the conclusion of the day’s competitions before the Indian national anthem was played. He receives a monetary prize of $70,000 (about Rs58 lakh). Meanwhile, Nadeem took silver with a throw of 87.82m, and Czech Republic’s Jakub Vadlejch (86.67m) took bronze. Nadeem was awarded $35,000 in cash. Vadlejch received $22,000 in prize money.
After his idol Jan Zelezny and Andreas Thorkildsen of Norway, Neeraj is now the only other javelin thrower to have won gold in the continental, olympic, and world championships. He has already won gold in the Asian Games in Jakarta in 2018, the Olympics in Tokyo in 2020, and the World Athletics Championships in 2023. He is the first javelin thrower from India to win gold at the World Championships in athletics, the Olympics, the Asian Games, and the Commonwealth Games. In addition, he won the Diamond League in 2022 and was the junior world champion in 2016.
Only in the 2022 World Championships did he not win gold among the important senior tournaments he has participated in since 2017. Due to Grenada’s Anderson Peters’ incredible throw of 90.54, he had earned silver. Even so, it was the best performance an Indian competitor has ever had. Additionally, it made him one of only two Indian competitors to take home a medal. The first came from Anju Bobby George, who took home bronze in the women’s long jump event at the 2003 World Championships in Paris. Neeraj became the first Indian to ever win multiple gold at the World Championships in athletics thanks to his performance on Sunday.
