Indian javelin-thrower Neeraj Chopra has created history by becoming the first Indian ever to win the gold medal in men’s javelin throw at the Asian Games. In the process, he also set a new national record as well as a personal best with a throw of 88.06m.
Qizhen Liu of China won the silver with 82.22m, while Pakistan’s Arshad Nadeem’s 80.75 got him the bronze.
Neeraj’s display was extremely dominant. All four of the event’s longest throws in the final were recorded by the 20-year-old from Haryana. While even his first throw of 83.46m would have been good enough to get him the gold, Neeraj ended up bettering it by a whole five meters.
Neeraj previously had a personal best throw of 87.43m that he had reached earlier this year. His biggest competitor for the gold coming into the tournament was expected to be Cheng Chao Tsun of Chinese Taipei. Cheng had previously recorded a personal best throw of a massive 91.36m back in 2017.
However, the final ended up becoming extremely one-sided with Cheng Chao Tsun only able to manage 79.81 and ending up fifth.
Neeraj, who also had the honour of being the country’s flag-bearer during the opening ceremony of the Asian Games, is a gold medallist from the Commonwealth Games which was held in Gold Coast earlier this year. He broke into the scene just two years back by breaking the junior world record during the Under-20 World Championships.
The only Indian to ever win a medal in javelin at the Asian Games was Gurtej Singh who won bronze at the 1982 Asian Games in New Delhi.
The other Indian in the event was Shivpal Singh. He, unfortunately, injured himself on his very first throw of 74.11m and did not compete in the rest of the event.