Neeraj Chopra has created history by winning the first gold medal in the Olympic Games 2021 for India. Neeraj Chopra has scripted history by winning the elusive medal, which slipped from the grasp of atheletes like late Milkha Singh and P T Usha let slip from their grasp in 1964 and 1984 editions. "I am at my first Olympic Games, and I feel very good. In warm-up my performance wasn't so good, but then (in the qualifying round) my first throw had a good angle, and was a perfect throw," Chopra had said after the qualifying round on Wednesday, August 4. "I will need to focus on the throw, and try to repeat this (performance) with a higher score," said the youngster who came into the Olympics with the fourth best throw (88.07m) this year.
Chopra's performance on Saturday was one of the best performances by an Indian in the Olympics, as he finished ahead of gold medal favourite and 2017 world champion Johannes Vetter of Germany. Vetter, who had earlier said that Chopra will find it tough to beat him in the Olympics, struggled in his first two throws before crossing the automatic qualification mark with a 85.64m final throw. The 23-year-old is the son of a farmer from Khandra village near Panipat in Haryana. Brimming with confidence with hardly any nerves on display in his debut at the Games, Chopra walked in like a rockstar to make the Tokyo Games India's best ever Olympic outing in what was the country's final competitive outing at the ongoing edition.
Pakistan's Arshad Nadeem, who had won a bronze medal when Chopra clinched gold in the 2018 Asian Games in Indonesia, topped Group B to earn an automatic qualification to the finals with a second round throw of 85.16m. He qualified for the finals at overall third behind Chopra and Vetter.
Sumariwalla's third term as AFI president will end in 2024 and he cannot be re-elected under the National Sports Code.
Sumariwalla and Klaus Bartonietz, the bio-mechanics expert in charge of Chopra, chief national coach Radhakrishnan Nair were seen cheering Chopra from the almost empty stands on Saturday.