India’s Gold medalist Neeraj Chopra becomes World No.2 in Javelin Throw

India’s golden boy Neeraj Chopra has gained two places in the latest Men’s Javelin Throw rankings, which was released by World Athletics on Wednesday. Chopra now occupies the second place after his Tokyo heroics. The man from Khandra, Panipat threw Javelin to a distance of 87.58 metres to secure his Gold medal and create history in Indian sports.

Chopra now has 1315 points in the rankings whereas Johannes Vetter, who finished at the ninth place in the Men’s Javelin Throw final in Tokyo, is at numero uno position with 1396 points. In fact, Vetter has a best throw of 97.76 (second-best overall), which he achieved in September 2020 but he was not able to breach the 86 metres mark in Tokyo.

Poland’s Marcin Krukowski (three), Czech Republic’s Jakub Vadlejch (four) and Germany’s Julian Weber (five) complete the top five in the rankings.

“My focus was on my game and if you manage to do well, sponsors and money follows. I want to invest them in the right direction and help those who are in need. The biggest thing for me is to keep my focus on my game and I can’t let success go to my head,” said Neeraj Chopra while talking to NDTV.

“I feel lucky that I managed to end India’s wait for an Olympic medal in athletics. Not just in athletics, all the sports in which we participated, we did well this time at the Tokyo Olympics.”

Neeraj Chopra winning the gold medal has been shortlisted as the top 10 magical moments of Tokyo Olympics by World Athletics.

Chopra received a grand welcome at the Indira Gandhi International airport as he was crowded by the security as fans and media gasped to catch one look of their hero. The 23-year old was felicitated by Sports Minister Anurag Thakur.