MUMBAI: Javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra knows what an Olympic track-and-field medal would be worth for Indian athletics and the gold he landed at the recent Commonwealth Games has given him confidence ahead of the Tokyo Games in two years’ time.
While the International Olympic Committee credits India with Norman Pritchard’s hurdles silver medals in 1900, before it gained independence from Britain, the world’s second most populous nation considers itself never to have won an athletics medal at an Olympics.
There was rare track-and-field success for India this month at the Carrara Stadium at Gold Coast when the 20-year-old Chopra won the javelin at the Commonwealth Games.
The former world junior champion became only the third man to win gold for India in Commonwealth Games athletics after sprinter Milkha Singh in 1958 and discus thrower Vikas Gowda in 2014.
“It was my first Commonwealth Games and I started thinking about how hard I had worked to get to that moment,” Chopra told Reuters in an interview, reminiscing the moment when his yellow metal was confirmed.
“The happiest thought for me was that I had made history by winning the first javelin gold.”
Track and field success at the Olympics has largely eluded India and the country’s two most famous track stars — Milkha Singh and P T Usha — missed podium places by the narrowest of margins.
Singh missed a bronze in the 400m at the 1960 Rome Olympics after a photo finish left him fourth, while Usha suffered the same heartbreak 24 years later when she was placed fourth after a photo finish in the 400m hurdles final in Los Angeles. Chopra, who put in his season’s best effort of 86.47 metres in the final at Gold Coast, said his triumph will motivate the junior athletes in India and make them believe “Yes, we can”.
“We have athletics medal in every event... be it Asian Games, Commonwealth Games, world championships,” said Chopra, who is part of diversified conglomerate JSW Group’s Sports Excellence Programme. “So the main aim is to win an Olympic medal. I can’t even imagine what that would mean to track-and-field in the country. People keep telling me that the person who wins an Olympic medal will probably become the God of athletics.
“Athletes like Milkha Singh and P T Usha came fourth in Olympics but everyone knows them. So if coming fourth in Olympics means so much I don’t know what a medal can do.” — Reuters
Oman Observer is now on the WhatsApp channel. Click here
