Tokyo 2020: From Athletics gold to hockey women semis - An Olympics of many firsts for India

Neeraj Chopra won Indias first Olympic gold in Athletics — Neeraj Chopra won India's first Olympic gold in Athletics

Bengaluru, August 8: Javelin Thrower Neeraj Chopra on Saturday (August 7) speared the longest throw for India's first-ever Gold medal in Athletics to end the nation's Tokyo 2020 campaign with highest ever medal haul at the Olympics.

Apart from Neeraj, the penultimate day of the Games, saw wrestler Bajrang Punia win the bronze medal in the men's freestyle 65kg category, swelling India's medal tally to seven medals, including one Gold, two Silvers and four Bronze medals.

Of the seven medals, three were won by women including shuttler PV Sindhu, boxer Lovlina Borgohain and weightlifter Mirabai Chanu, who opened India's account with a silver medal on the first day of Tokyo 2020.

The nation's other four were won by Neeraj, Bajrang, wrestler Ravi Kumar Dahiya and men's hockey team, who won their first medal at the Games after 41 years.

Meanwhile, the likes of discus thrower Kamalpreet Kaur and the women's hockey team were also the highlights of India's Tokyo Olympics, which witnessed some many firsts for the country in an Olympics. Here mykhel takes a look at the many first for India:

First medal in Tokyo 2020

Weightlifter Mirabai Chanu got the flag waving as she won the first medal for India at the Tokyo Olympics on the first day of the Games in the 49kg category. She also became the second weightlifter to win a medal at the Games after Karnam Malleswari's Bronze in the 69kg category event at the Sydney Games in 2000.

Bhavani Devi makes India’s entry in Fencing

Bhavani Devi became the first Indian fencer to qualify for the Olympic Games. The Chennai-based fencer opened her Tokyo Olympics campaign with a win in the first round, but lost to fourth-seeded Manon Brunet of France in the second round.

Rowers first semi-final

Rowing duo Arjun Lal Jat and Arvind Singh became the first Indian double sculls pair to reach the semi-finals of an Olympics and the pair went on to finish 11th in the event, the best ever result for the country at the Olympic Games.

Lovlina glorious in her first ever Olympics

On her Olympics debut, Boxer Lovlina Borgohain won many hearts after her fighting display at the Tokyo Olympics, which ended with a bronze medal in the women's welterweight category.

PV Sindhu’s back-to-back medal wins

World champion and Rio 2016 silver medallist Sindhu, who was a medal hope going into the Tokyo Games, delivered with a Bronze in the women's singles event and became India's first woman to win two individual medals at the Olympics. She lost to Tai Tzu-ying in the semi-final, but came back well to beat He Bingjiao to settle for bronze in Tokyo.

First ever semi-final for Women’s Hockey team

Although they didn't end Tokyo 2020 with a medal, the Indian Women's Hockey team won many hearts as the Rani Rampal-led side made history by reaching their first-ever quarter-final and then the semi-final at the Olympic Games. The Indian eves beat Australia, the second-highest ranked team in the world, in the quarter-final. However, they lost to Argentina in the semi-final and then lost the bronze medal match against Great Britain by the narrowest of margins.

Wrestlers in debut Olympics

Although the favourite and experienced Vinesh Phogat made an early exit, the Olympic debutants Ravi Kumar Dahiya, Deepak Punia and Bajrang Punia had good first outings at the Summer Olympics with one coming very close to a gold. While Ravi Dahiya settled for silver after defeat in the gold medal bout, Deepak lost his bronze medal bout and Bajrang finished the Indian wrestling campaign with a bronze as two wrestlers added to the medal tally for the country.

First Gold in Athletics

Neeraj won the nation's first-ever gold medal in Athletics with a throw of 87.58m in men's javelin throw final and also became the second individual gold medallist for the India at the Olympics since shooter Abhinav Bindra's first individual gold medal win in the 10m Air Rifle event at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.