Budapest, August 28th: Neeraj Chopra, the Olympic champion, has once again etched his name in history by becoming the first Indian to secure a gold medal at the World Athletics Championships. Dominating the men’s javelin final in Budapest, he unleashed a massive throw of 88.17 meters.
This achievement was further highlighted as three Indian athletes clinched top-eight positions in the same event, marking a groundbreaking moment. Kishore Jena (84.77m) and DP Manu (84.14m) secured the fifth and sixth spots, respectively. This was an unprecedented occurrence in the World Championships.
Chopra, aged 25, delivered his standout performance in his second attempt, registering his best throw of the day. Despite starting with a foul, he consecutively achieved distances of 88.17m, 86.32m, 84.64m, 87.73m, and 83.98m.
Arshad Nadeem of Pakistan, the reigning Commonwealth Games champion, secured the silver medal with a season’s best throw of 87.82m, while the bronze went to Jakub Vadlejch from the Czech Republic.
With this triumph, Chopra has joined an elite league, becoming only the second Indian after the legendary shooter Abhinav Bindra to simultaneously hold both Olympic and World Championships titles. Bindra secured the World Championships title at the age of 23 and claimed Olympic gold at 25.
Chopra, who had already secured India’s first Olympic track and field gold medal at the Tokyo Games in 2021, had previously won a silver in the 2022 edition of the World Championships. Before him, the celebrated long jumper Anju Bobby George had secured a bronze medal at the 2003 World Championships.
Remarkably, Chopra now stands as the third javelin thrower in history to concurrently hold the titles of Olympics and World Championships, a feat previously achieved only by Jan Zelezny of the Czech Republic and Andreas Thorkildsen of Norway. Zelezny clinched Olympic gold in 1992, 1996, and 2000, while also securing World Championships titles in 1993, 1995, and 2001. Thorkildsen achieved victory in the 2008 Olympics and the 2009 World Championships.
This outstanding accomplishment solidifies Chopra’s dominance across various championships and events. He had previously secured gold at the Asian Games (2018) and the Commonwealth Games (2018), along with four individual Diamond League Meeting titles (two each in 2022 and 2023) and the Diamond League champion’s trophy in the previous year. Additionally, he had earned the junior world champion title in 2016 and clinched the Asian Championships title in 2017.
