Tokyo Olympics | Things you may not know about Neeraj Chopra, the man who won India first gold in track and field

Neeraj Chopra won India a historic gold medal at 2021 Tokyo Olympics

Neeraj Chopra made history at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and won India its first gold at the contest. So we thought, we would dig up a little history on the man himself. Here are some interesting facts about Neeraj Chopra.

Hailing from the Khandra village in the Panipat district of Haryana, the 23-year old athlete currently serves as a Junior Commissioned Officer in the Indian Army.

Chopra first took up the sport of Javelin Throwing after watching other throwers train in his home town. He started in 2011. Chopra's hero is Czech Javelin Thrower Jan Zelezny.

He won his first gold medal at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo and is the second person after Abhinav Bindra to win a gold for India in any Individual games.

He set a world junior record at the 2016 IAAF World U20 Championships in Bydgoszcz, Poland but unfortunately, couldn't qualify for the 2016 Summer Olympics because he missed the cut off date.

In 2017, he won another gold at the Asian Athletic Championships with a throw of 85.23m. In 2018, he broke the national record with a throw of 87.43m at the Doha Diamond League.

Chopra became the only track and field athlete to be nominated by the AFI(Athletics Federation of India) for the country's highest sports award (Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna award) in 2018.

Chopra was conferred with the Arjuna Award after winning a gold at the Gold Coast Commonwealth in 2018.

He set a new Indian National Record with a throw distance of 88.06m to win gold at the Asian Games in 2018.