Picture Credit: Twitter
Tokyo Olympics gold-medalist Neeraj Chopra on Sunday ended the country's 19-year-long wait for a medal after he bagged the silver medal at the World Championships 2022 with a historic throw of 88.13m. Notably, this was India's second medal at the World Championships and the maiden podium finish since Anju Bobby George won a bronze medal in long jump in Paris in 2003.
Chopra fell short by a couple of meters at the Hayward Field of Anderson Peter's gold-medal mark of 90.54m while Tokyo 2022 silver medalist Jakub Vadlejch clinched the bronze medal with 88.09m. As soon as the news of Neeraj Chopra bagging a silver medal at the World Championships broke out, his family celebrated the historic victory with some dancing and distributing sweets at his village near Panipat in Haryana.
The 24-year-old had a shocking start as opened his account with a foul, while reigning champion Peters of Grenada set the benchmark high with a 90.21m attempts in his first throw in the summit clash. However, Neeraj better his performance in the second and third attempts as he recorded the figure of 82.39m and 86.37m, respectively.
Although Neeraj made a significant jump in as he was placed fourth after Round 3 he was still far from a podium finish. Chopra finally surprised everyone with his astonishing figure of 88.13m in his fourth attempt which saw him leapfrog the Czech Republic's Jakub Vadlejch and Germany`s Julian Weber into the silver medal position. The Indian star Javelin thrower fouled his subsequent attempts but had clocked enough distance to bag a medal at World Championships 2022.
Apart from Neeraj Chopra, Rohit Yadav finished 10th with a best attempt of 78.72m, which came in his third attempt. His two earlier attempts measured 77.96m and 78.05m. Peters breached 90.54m in his final throw to increase his margin of victory and etched down in the history book by becoming the first man since the legendary Jan Zelezny to successfully defend a men's Javelin throw crown at the World Athletics Championships.