Neeraj Chopra (Twitter Image)
Neeraj Chopra has won gold medals at the Tokyo Olympics, Asian Games and the Commonwealth Games too, the World Championships gold is the only remaining medal from his tally
Neeraj Chopra was already making a name for himself in the world javelin circuit even before he won the Tokyo Olympic gold medal which propelled him into superstardom. The 25-year-old became a household name and for good measure. Courtesy of his gold in Tokyo, Neeraj gave more than 1 billion fans in India a glimmer of hope and on Sunday, the entire nation will be hoping that Chopra can become the first Indian to win a World Athletics Championship crown.
The Javelin thrower from Haryana already has a silver medal in his kitty, alongside the Asian Games gold medal, The Commonwealth Games gold and the Asian Championships gold too.
Lining up against the likes of Pakistan’s Arshad Nadeem, Croatia’s Jakub Vadlejch, who is the world number 1, the world number 2 Julian Weber, Neeraj Chopra will be gunning to enter the 90m club, a feat he has yet to achieve in his stellar career so far.
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If Neeraj can achieve that feat in Budapest, it will be a massive statement of intent from the Indian who already has a Diamond League crown, while he also has already confirmed his berth at the Paris Olympics next year thanks to his sensational season-best throw of 88.77m in the qualifying rounds on Friday.
After missing out on the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham last year, Chopra rose to the world number 1 ranking earlier in May 2023 before losing the crown to Vadlejch.
He roared back to action in 2023 with another crucial victory in the Doha Diamond League but he is yet to near his personal best throw of 89.94 metres that came in the Stockholm Diamond League last year.
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As far as Individual honours are concerned, Neeraj Chopra won the Arjuna Award in 2018, the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award in 2021, and was conferred with the Padma Shri and Param Vishisht Seva Medal titles in 2022.
The World Championship gold medal is all that’s left to achieve for Neeraj and no wonder the Indian ace will be having his sights set on gold on Sunday.
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