Neeraj Chopra continued to break new ground, clinching the only gold medal missing from his decorated trophy cabinet, but most of his compatriots appreciated deceiving again at the World Athletics Championships. Indian athletes have won a total of three medals at the major event so far, with Chopra winning two of them – one silver and one gold. Legendary long jumper Anju Bobby George won bronze at the 2003 edition. On Sunday night, the man with the golden arm made history again when he hurled the javelin a distance of 88.17m, becoming the first Indian to win the coveted yellow metal at a World Athletics Championships.
However, the gold medal in the men's javelin throw is likely to be the only medal the Indian squad will take home from Budapest. Although he reached the finals in four competitions, in the harsh reality no Indian apart from Chopra was considered a serious contender.
At the last edition, six Indians made it to the final. And the number of Indians who qualified for the finals this year hasn't changed much.
Competitors who made it to the finals included javelin throwers Chopra, DP Manu ad Kishore Jena, 3000m steeplechaser Parul Chaudhary, long jumper Jeswin Aldrin and the men's relay.
This time, however, there were plenty of disappointments for the Indians.
Much was expected at the long jump competition. The duo of Jeswin Aldrin and Murali Sreeshankar had entered the meet as the season leaders. However, the former finished in 11th place while the latter failed to reach the finals.
The 3000m steeplechaser Avinash Sable was also considered one of India's best runners after Chopra, but the national record holder botched his run and retired from the race.
“Last time was good. If you compare this time to last year, the athletes were different. We did very well in the 4x400m relay and broke the Asian record. This time new athletes came and they brought new hope. We're going to prepare very well for that.” “Olympic Games,” Chopra said.
“I know how those feel who couldn't do their best this time. They prepared as best they could, but I want to tell them not to be disappointed because they did their best. The only thing is that they should figure out the mistake and not repeat themselves again,” he added.
The men's 4x400m relay that smashed the Asian record, three never-before-seen javelin throwers finished in the top six and Parul Chaudhary, who broke the national record in the women's 3000m steeplechase and himself qualifying for the Paris Olympics were the other bright sports in India's otherwise mediocre performance at the world event.
Muhammed Anas Yahiya, Amoj Jacob, Muhammed Ajmal Variyathodi and Rajesh Ramesh broke the Asian record in a stunning race of 2 minutes 59.05 seconds, qualifying for the first final where the Indians finished in 2:59, 92 finished a respectable fifth.
Minutes earlier, Chaudhary broke the qualifying mark of Paris (9:23.00) and set a new national record of 9:15.31 by finishing 11th.
For the first time, three Indians finished in the top six in the men's javelin: Kishore Jena, who posted a personal best of 84.77m, and DP Manu (84.14m) finished fifth and sixth.
(Except for the headline, this article was not edited by NDTV staff and is published via a syndicated feed.)
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