“Neeraj Chopra’s gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics changed our mentality,” says Commonwealth gold medallist Eldhose Paul

The Indian athletics contingent ended the Commonwealth Games on a high as they ended with a total of eight medals. They won one gold, four silver and three bronze medals in the recently concluded Birmingham Games. This happened despite the absence of Olympic champion Neeraj Chopra who was out injured after winning the silver medal at the World Athletics Championship that happened in Eugene, Oregon.

The Indian athletics contingent genuinely exceeded all the expectations as they were simply sensational at the quadrennial games. They bettered their record from last season where they achieved only three medals in Gold Coast. So the Birmingham Games were a sensational improvement for the Indian athletics contingent.

Indian triple jump star Eldhose Paul won the solitary gold medal at the Commonwealth Games. Paul was coming from a decent World Athletics Championship and proved his credentials by winning the sensational gold medal. India achieved the top two places in the triple jump event as Abdullah Aboobacker finished second and won the silver medal.

After the Birmingham Games, Eldhose Paul credited Neeraj Chopra for the growth of athletics in the country. Paul shared that Chopra inculcated the winning mentality in athletics when the Javelin thrower won gold at the Olympics in Tokyo.

In an interaction with ANI, Paul shared, “Neeraj Chopra’s gold (in Tokyo 2020 Olympics) changed our mentality. Earlier we had set some limitations for us. But now, Indians are capable of doing something magical. We will have to keep working hard and breaking limits set by us.”

Paul left his best for the big occasion as he came up with a personal best of 17.03m to win the coveted gold medal at the global event. India even had a chance to sweep the podium but Praveen Chitravel missed out on the bronze as he finished fourth in the event.

“I am happy that the national anthem was playing and the first two athletes were from India. I felt proud. We were already preparing for CWG and Asian Games. The World Championships gave us an experience that benefitted us,” Paul added.

Apart from the medals in triple jump, the most shocking medal was Avinash Sable’s who broke the Kenyan dominance in 3000m Steeplechase and won the silver medal. Similarly Priyanka Goswami and Sandeep Kumar also won medals in race walking. Also medals in jump events from Murali Sreeshankar and Tejaswin Shankar also were groundbreaking for India.