Neeraj Chopra roared the moment javelin left his hand in Olympic Gold medal winning throw

Star javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra on Saturday scripted history at the Tokyo Olympics as he won India's first gold medal and ended the nation's 100 years long wait of winning a medal in athletics at the mega-event. The 23-year-old Chopra from Khandra village near Panipat in Haryana produced a second-round throw of 87.58m in the finals, stunning the athletics world. 

Neeraj Chopra's winning throw

Interestingly, Neeraj Chopra's winning throw is what caught the eyes of everyone. In the first round, as soon as Neeraj Chopra threw the javelin in his second attempt, he roared loudly and spread his arms long before the javelin landed, knowing instantly that he had executed it perfectly. And ultimately, this throw became the longest throw in Tokyo Olympics in Javelin Throw event.  

Netizens react to Neeraj Chopra's winning roar at Tokyo Olympics

Neeraj Chopra's historic gold medal at Tokyo Olympics

Neeraj Chopra won the country's seventh medal and first gold in this Olympics and joined shooter Abhinav Bindra (2008 Beijing Games) as India's individual gold winner in the Olympics. With this, the country surpassed the previous best haul of six medals achieved in the 2012 London Games.

Czech Republic throwers Jakub Vadlejch (86.67m) and Vitezslav Vesely (85.44m) took the silver and bronze respectively.

Chopra came into the final as a medal contender after topping the qualification round on Wednesday with a stunning first-round throw of 86.59m. But only a few would have thought he would bludgeon his way to gold in such a dominant fashion at the grandest of the stage.

Season leader and pre-tournament gold favourite Johannes Vetter of Germany, who had thrown the javelin to 90m plus distances seven times between April and June, was eliminated after the first three throws as he was placed ninth with a best effort of 82.52m.

The top eight after the first three throws get three more attempts while the remaining four in the 12-man final are eliminated.

With his fifth career-best throw, Chopra has done something which the likes of late Milkha Singh and P T Usha could not do in 1960 and 1984 editions. No Indian has won a medal in athletics since the country started taking part in the Games in 1920 in Antwerp, Belgium.
 

(Image Credits: @BCCi/Twitter/@Tokyo2020hi)