Neeraj Chopra scripts history yet again, wins gold in World Athletics Championships 2023

Neeraj Chopra scripts history yet again, becomes first Indian to win gold in World Athletics Championships

Olympic champion Neeraj Chopra scripted history yet again on August 27 as he became the first Indian to win a gold medal in the World Athletics Championships with a best throw of 88.17m in the men's javelin final.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on August 28, lauded Chopra on his latest win. The prime minister congratulated the javelin thrower, stating he "exemplifies excellence", on microblogging site X, formerly Twitter.

The talented @Neeraj_chopra1 exemplifies excellence. His dedication, precision and passion make him not just a champion in athletics but a symbol of unparalleled excellence in the entire sports world. Congrats to him for winning the Gold at the World Athletics Championships. pic.twitter.com/KsOsGmScER

— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) August 28, 2023

In another first, three Indians finished in top eight with Kishore Jena (84.77m) and DP Manu (84.14m) taking the fifth and sixth spots respectively. Never before have three Indians finished in the top eight of an event in the World Championships.

The 25-year-old Chopra, also known as the "Golden boy", dominated the competition, marking his best throw of the day in his second attempt. He had a foul to start with, which was later followed by 88.17m, 86.32m, 84.64m, 87.73m and 83.98m.

Pakistan's reigning Commonwealth Games champion Arshad Nadeem bagged the silver, throwing his season's best at 87.82m, while Jakub Vadlejch (86.67m) of Czech Republic got the bronze.

Initially, Olympic champion Chopra had a foul start, but later catapulted to the top spot with his second throw, leading the game field till the end. Pakistan's Nadeem also maintained his second position from the third round after which it was 1-2 for the Indo-Pak duo till the end.

Prior to this game, Chopra had beat Nadeem in the 2016 South Asian Games. Since then, the two athletes have competed against each other in more than a dozen events, with Chopra always leading among the two. The two, however, share a cordial relationship.

With the latest win, Chopra becomes the second Indian after legendary shooter Abhinav Bindra to simultaneously hold the Olympics and World Championships title. Bindra won the World Championships title when he was 23, and the Olympics gold at 25.

In the World Championships 2022, Chopra had won a silver. Legendary long jumper Anju Bobby George had won a bronze in the 2003 World Championships before him.

The Indian Golden boy from Haryana also became the third javelin thrower in history to simultaneously hold the Olympics and World Championships titles after the iconic Jan Zelezny of Czech Republic and Andreas Thorkildsen of Norway.

Zelezny clinched the Olympics gold in 1992, 1996 and 2000 while winning World Championships title in 1993, 1995 and 2001. Thorkildsen won gold in the 2008 Olympics and the 2009 World Championships.

With his feat in the finals, Chopra has won every title his sport has to offer. He has won gold in the Asian Games (2018) and Commonwealth Games (2018), besides four individual Diamond League Meeting titles (two each in 2022 and 2023) and Diamond League champion's trophy last year.

He also became junior world champion in 2016 and won the Asian Championships title in 2017.

Meanwhile, the Indian men's 4x400m relay team raised hopes of a historic medal after finishing second overall in the heats with Asian record time of 2 minute 59.51 seconds on Saturday. But, in the final on Sunday, the quartet of Muhammed Anas Yahiya, Amoj Jacob, Muhammed Ajmal Variyathodi and Rajesh Ramesh could do no better than finish a creditable fifth with a time of 2:59.92.

Parul Chaudhary created a national record of 9 minute 15.31 seconds while finishing 11th in women's 3000m steeplechase final. The earlier record was held by Lalita Babar (9:19.76) who had finished eighth in the final of the 2015 World Championships.

Chopra's gold on the last day of competitions brought cheers to the Indian camp after an underwhelming start. Except for the performances of Chopra, Jena, Manu, Parul Chaudhary, the men's 4x400m relay team and Jeswin Aldrin (11th in men's long jump final), the World Championships outing was mediocre for the remaining Indians.

Long jumper Murali Sreeshankar and 3000m steeplechaser Avinash Sable were tipped to be the best performers after Chopra but both failed to qualify for the finals in their respective events, much to the disappointment of the Indian camp.

In the 2022 edition, apart from the silver won by Chopra, five other Indians had made it to the finals.

In the 2022 edition of the games, Anderson Peters of Grenada had beat Chopra for the gold. The Indian had settled for a landmark silver, with a best throw of 88.13m in the final to become only the second from the country. He also became the first male track and field athlete to win a medal in the World Championships.

Peters, who had won gold in 2019 also, could not make it to the 2023 final after failing to even touch the 80m mark in the qualification round on August 25. Chopra had topped the qualification round with a single throw of 88.77m.

It was a tense start as Chopra fouled his first throw but he roared back with 88.17m in his second effort to jump to the top. He had 86.32m in his third attempt.

Chopra led the field at the end of the first three rounds when the bottom four out of the 12 competitors were eliminated. By then, Pakistan's Arshad Nadeem catapulted himself to second spot with a third round throw of 87.82m.

DP Manu also moved up to the fifth while Jena made the top eight at seventh after three rounds.

Germany's Julian Weber was positioned third after the first three rounds. However, Vadlejch, with his throw of 86.67 m in the fifth round, grabbed the bronze medal.

There was no change in the top two as Nadeem could not better his third round throw of 87.82m. The Pakistan javelin thrower, however, came close to it in the fourth round with 87.15m. He fouled his fifth attempt, and by the time the Pakistani sent his spear to just 81.86m in his sixth and final attempt, the gold was assured for Chopra.

The Indian took the final throw but could come up with only 83.98m which, however, was inconsequential.