India gets 1st world champ in athletics

CHANDIGARH: On Saturday evening, javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra achieved what no other Indian athlete had. The 18-year-old became the first Indian world champion in any athletic event by winning gold at the IAAF World Under-20 Athletics Championship in Poland with a world-record throw (in U-20) of 86.48m. Keshorn Walcott had thrown 84.58m to win the 2012 London Olympics gold.
Celebrations broke out in Chopra's village of Khandra Chopra's village of Khandra in Panipat as the news spread.He had taken to athletics to fight off obesity. "When the spear left my hand, I had a feeling that this was a special throw. I don't think I expected it to go over 86 metres but... I have worked hard on my fitness and my technique, and it all paid off," Chopra later said. The 18-year-old thus became the first Indian world champion in athletics at any level. He not only broke the U-20 world record held by Latvian Zigismunds Sirmais but also bettered his own senior national record (82.33m), set at the South Asian Games in Guwahati earlier this year.
Chopra's throw is the eighth best among all throwers, including the senior category, this year. Defending Olympic gold medallist Keshorn Walcott of Trinidad and Tobago's best for 2016 is 86.35m, which is below Chopra's mark. Walcott had thrown 84.58m to win gold at the 2012 London Olympics.
Although he missed out on an Olympic berth this year, Chopra believes he'll definitely win a medal for the country in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. "I missed out on qualifying for the Olympics this year and that was a motivating factor for me here (at the world junior championship). I wanted to return home with nothing but gold," Chopra told TOI from Poland.
"I am going to train harder from now onwards with my coach (Garry Calvert) and my aim is to win a medal for the country in the 2020 Olympics," he added.
The Olympic qualification mark was 83m and though Chopra's throw at the world junior championship was far better, the last date to breach the Olympic standard was July 11. Chopra had been trying to qualify for the Olympics since the beginning of the year, but a back injury in April proved to be a huge setback.
Chopra's first attempt saw him throw the spear at 79.66m, which put him in the lead. South Africa's Johan Grobler, who took the silver, flung the javelin at 80.59m in his first attempt and took away the lead from the Haryana lad.
But, it was all too brief. Chopra's second attempt was the winner by long margin. The massive 86.48m throw allowed him to retake the lead. Anderson Peters of Granada, with a throw of 79.65m, took the bronze.
In previous years, two Indian women discus throwers, Seema Antil (2002) and Navjeet Kaur Dhillon (2014) had won bronze medals in world junior championships. In the senior world championship, long jumper Anju Bobby George's bronze in 2003.That's the only medal India has got till date.
Rio Games wild card for Chopra?
New Delhi: Athletics Federation of India (AFI) have written to the world governing body IAAF to consider new junior world record holder javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra for a wild card entry in next month's Rio Olympics, it's president said on Sunday.