World Athletics Championships: Neeraj Chopra wins silver with 88.13m throw

With this, Chopra has become the second Indian and first Indian man to win a medal at the World Athletics Championships.

Earlier, the legendary long jumper Anju Booby George was the first Indian to win a bronze medal in the World Championships in the 2003 edition in Paris.

World Athletics Championships are being held at Eugene, Oregon.

With 90.54 m throw, Grenada’s Anderson Peters won the gold medal.

Chopra began with a foul throw and had 82.39m and 86.37m to be at fourth after three rounds. He got his rhythm back with a big fourth round throw of 88.13m, his fourth career-best effort, to jump to second place, which he held on to till the end. His fifth and sixth throws were fouls.

Defending champion Anderson Peters of Grenada won gold with a best throw of 90.54m while Olympic silver winner Jakub Vadlejch of Czech Republic took the bronze with 88.09m.

Chopra had topped the Group A qualification round and qualified for the final at second place behind Peters by sending his spear to 88.39m for his third career-best throw. Peters had topped Group B with an effort of 89.91m.

The other Indian in the fray, Rohit Yadav finished at 10th with a best throw of 78.72m. Rohit had finished 11th overall in the qualification round with a best throw of 80.42m.

The 21-year-old Indian had recorded a season’s and personal best of 82.54m while winning a silver at the National Inter-State Championships last month.

Earlier in June, Chopra had also set a new national record with an opening throw of 89.94m at the Stockholm Diamond League.

Chopra had won Indian athletics’ maiden gold in the Tokyo Olympics last year. He is only the second Indian to have won an individual gold in the Olympics, after shooter Abhinav Bindra, who clinched the yellow metal in 2008 Beijing Games.

(With inputs from PTI)

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