Chopra is now only the second Indian after shooter Abhinav Bindra to simultaneously hold the Olympics and World Championships titles
Budapest: Olympic champion Neeraj Chopra speared another world record on Sunday, August 27, and became the first Indian to win a gold medal in the World Athletics Championships with a big throw of 88.17m in the men’s javelin final here, a PTI report said.
In another first, three Indians (including Chopra) finished in the top eight positions with compatriots Kishore Jena (84.77m) and DP Manu (84.14m) taking the fifth and sixth spots, respectively. Never before have three Indians finished in top eight of an event in the World Championships.
Twenty-five-year-old Chopra achieved his best throw of the day in his second attempt. He had a foul to start with, but then got 88.17m, 86.32m, 84.64m, 87.73m and 83.98m.
Pakistan’s reigning Commonwealth Games champion Arshad Nadeem took the silver with his season’s best throw of 87.82m, while Jakub Vadlejch of Czech Republic got the bronze.
Chopra now becomes only the second Indian — after legendary shooter Abhinav Bindra — to simultaneously hold the Olympics and World Championships titles. Bindra won the World Championships title when he was 23, and the Olympics gold at 25.
Chopra, who had become the first Indian Olympic track and field gold medallist in Tokyo Games in 2021, had won a silver in the 2022 edition of World Championships.
Before him, legendary long jumper Anju Bobby George had won a bronze in the 2003 World Championships.
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