Chopra captures historic silver for India; Korir wins 800m gold
India’s sports community hailed Neeraj Chopra on Sunday ater the Olympic javelin champion won the country’s first silver medal at the World Championships.
Chopra’s throw of 88.13 meters was not enough to beat Grenadian Anderson Peters’ effort of 90.54m but it was enough to end India’s 19-year waitforanothermedalattheworldchampionships.
Anju Bobby George took bronze in the women’s long jump in Paris in 2003 to win India’s first medal.
“I feel very good ater winning a silver for India,” Chopra said in a video shared by the Sports Authority of India (SAI). “Next year we have another World Championships, and I’ll try to do beter there.”
The 24-year old Indian, who made the cut for the Oregon 2022 men’s javelin throw final courtesy an 88.39m mark in the qualification, made a disappointing start with a foul.
Needing to shater his personal best and the national record of 89.94m, set at the Stockholm Diamond League last month, for a shot at gold, Neeraj posted 82.39m and 86.37m with his second and third atempts, respectively. However, he was still short of a medal position ater the third series of throws.
“In the first three throws, I did not feel good. My warm-up was not good. I felt something in my groin during the throw but I think it is OK,” the Indian ace said.
The star athlete also mentioned that the windy conditions were challenging and he learnt from it.
“Conditions were not great, there was a lot of wind. But I felt that I would get a good throw. It was a good experience today. Also to throw with such wind, I learned something from this,” he said.
Chopra, who became the first Indian to win an individual athletics gold at the Olympics in Tokyo last year, had delivered a “historic moment”, George said.
“I’m really happy and excited that ater a long wait of 19 years, we have won our second World Championships medal,” she said.
Shooter Abhinav Bindra, who won India’s first individual Olympic gold in Beijing in 2008, also heaped praise on the 24-year-old javelin thrower.
“Many congratulations for your silver at the worlds! You make us proud,” Bindra wrote on Twiter.
Meanwhile, Kenya’s Emmanuel Korir and Pedro Pichardo of Portugal added world titles to their respective Olympic crowns, but there was injury heartbreak for Canada’s Damian Warner in the decathlon. The 4x100m relays saw the US women beat a loaded Jamaican team featuring individual sprint champions Shelly-ann Fraserpryce and Shericka Jackson, to win gold, but a Canada team anchored by Olympic 200m champion Andre de Grasse beat the favoured US men’s team into silver.
“It felt great to do it, to spoil the party for them,” said De Grasse, who contracted Covid-19 three weeks before the championships and was too fatigued to race the 200m.
“We talked about this moment so many times. We came up a litle bit short at the Olympics, and we were all like, we could do beter...it’s a good way to end the championship.”
Korir produced a trademark kick from 200 metres out to win the men’s 800m in 1min 43.71sec, well ahead of Algerian Djamel Sedjati with silver and Canada’s Marco Arop bronze.
“I knew there were some guys close behind me in the last 100m,” Korir said.
“I was expecting someone to come, but no one did. I never shake my end in training but I do in races. It’s like magic. I have been working for this. It’s been a long wait — I failed in 2017 and 2019 and I made it now.”
Pichardo was imperious in the triple jump, all but tying up competition when he went out to 17.95 metres on his first atempt.
“I opened strongly,” the Cuban-born Pichardo said, adding that he had been mentally focused on the mythical 18-metre mark in a bid to beter his two previous silvers.
“My mindset was focused on 18m. It did not come out today, but more importantly, I won gold. This world title was elusive to me.”
In the absence of American multiple global medal winner Christian Taylor, world and Olympic bronze medallist Hugues Fabrice Zango of Burkina Faso claimed silver 40cm off Pichardo, while China’s Zhu Yaming took bronze.
Warner, also a winner in Tokyo, was in full control of the decathlon ater four of the first day’s five events, but he pulled up injured in the 400m.
Trailing outside the top three ater his first three atempts, Chopra’s massive throw escalated him to the second position, only behind reigning champion Peters, who took gold with a humongous throw of 90.54m