Gold Coast, April 14: India continued to ramp up gold on the penultimate day of the Commonwealth Games and athletics joined the party through javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra on Saturday (April 14).
The 20-year-old Neeraj Chopra hurled the javelin to a distance of 86.47M to ensure gold for his country and the throw placed him a stunning 3.88 metre ahead of his nearest rival - Hamish Peacock of Australia who managed 82.59M.
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The bronze went to Anderson Peters of Granada who found a distance of 82.20M. The second Indian in the competition Vipin Kashana ended fifth with a throw of 77.87M.
Neeraj Chopra began the competition with a big 85. 50M throw and that placed him instantly on the top slot and he did not let that slip away from him even for once.
#NeerajChopra1 ने 86.47 मीटर भाला फेंक कर गोल्ड मेडल अपने नाम किया।यह भारत का 21वां गोल्ड है।#GC2018athletics@GC2018 @Ra_THORe @afiindia @ioaindia @IndiaSports pic.twitter.com/hP6u8g2Lcn
— News World Hindi (@KhabarNwi) April 14, 2018
His second attempt was a foul but that hardly mattered on a day when his shortest distance was a mindboggling 83.48 his fifth attempt and even that was much ahead of the silver medallist.
It is only the fourth individual gold for an Indian in track and field sport at CWG. Milkha SIngh (men's 440 yards), Krishna Poonia (women's discus, 2010) and Vikas Gowda (men's discus, 2014) preceded Neeraj Chopra.
— G Rajaraman (@g_rajaraman) April 14, 2018
A brief biography of Neeraj
Neeraj Chopra is the son of a farmer from Panipat, Haryana and never really had a coach in the formative years. Amazingly, YouTube was his coach as a young Neeraj watched the videos of world-class javelin athletes from across the globe.
Medals have come regularly at the senior level too for Neeraj Chopra. In August 2017, Neeraj won a gold at the Asian Athletics Championships in Bhubaneshwar with a mark of 85.23m -- the best-ever throw recorded in Indian soil at that time.
At the Federation Cup in March 2018, he did even better. Although he had already qualified for the Commonwealth Games, he challenged himself and set a new record in Indian soil of 85.94M, in what was his final attempt of the competition.
86.47 season best from @Neeraj_chopra1 wooooooohooooo pic.twitter.com/DN7EaDWeou
— Athletics Federation of India (@afiindia) April 14, 2018
Neeraj is also the first Indian athlete to become a world champion in a field event as he clinched gold at the IAAF World U-20 Championships in Bydogszcz, Poland, with a record throw of 84.69M.
Having trained without a coach for much of his career, he then had to deal with the setback of Gary Calvert's quitting, under whom he first set the national record.
Neeraj now trains under former World Record holder Uwe Hohn but has also begun training separately in Germany.