YOUNG INDIA COMES TO THE FORE

It was left to an i m p l e m e n t , w e i g h i n g 800gm, to salvage India’s pride in athletics. The strong right arm of Neeraj Chopra, who learnt the nuances of javelin throw through Youtube, didn’t disappoint as the 20- year- old from Haryana smashed the field to smithereens on his way to a splendid gold medal. That his best three efforts would have been good enough for the gold demonstrated how dominant he had been.

Neeraj, who burst on to the scene with a sensational gold at the 2016 world youth championship, was in the mood at Gold Coast. The gold medallist’s best of the day, 86.47m, was just one centimetre short of his national record. Neeraj has reinforced the faith of athletics aficionados in the country that he is the chosen one to break India’s Olympic duck in track and field.

Seema Punia and Navjeet Dhillon provided some crumbs of comfort to India by grabbing a silver and a bronze medal in the discus.

Kerala athletes Muhammad Anas — only the second Indian athlete to qualify for the 400m Commonwealth Games final after Milkha Singh — and Jinson Johnson deserve honourable mention for setting up national records. ( Inputs from Moses Kondety, T. N. Raghu and Deepika Das)

20- year- old Neeraj Chopra, who learnt the nuances of javelin throw through Youtube, smashed the field to smithereens on his way to a splendid gold medal