The 24-year-old Tokyo Olympics champion won the silver medal in men’s javelin at the World Athletics meet in Eugene, USA with a best throw of 88.13m.
Neeraj Chopra finished 2nd behind Anderson Peters of Grenada, who defended his world championships title, with 3 throws in excess of 90m. Neeraj began slow as he fouled his first attempt, giving a nation of billion some anxious moments. His second throw of 82.39m was far from his personal best of 89.94m, but the Haryana athlete kept his composure and fought back to hurl the spear to a distance of 88.13m in his fourth attempt.
Neeraj won the Tokyo Olympics gold last year with a best attempt of 87.58m but even an 88.13m effort on Sunday was not enough for him to win the yellow metal in Eugene.
“It’s a great honour to win the World Championships. It’s a huge competition for athletics. World Championships, most times, has stiff competition, even tougher than the Olympics. The championship record at the world meet is higher than the Olympics. It has a very tough field. If you look at this year, the throwers are in fine form,” Neeraj Chopra said.
