Neeraj Chopra won with a throw of 88.44m

The Early Career of Neeraj Chopra :

• Chopra learned the basics of the game from Choudhary & a few other more experienced athletes who had undergone Jalandhar’s javelin coach training.

• At the district competition, he received his debut medal, a bronze one.

All about Global Career:

• In 2013, Chopra took part in his first global tournament, the Ukrainian World Championships of the Youth.

• At the 2014 Qualifications of the Youth Olympics in Bangkok, where he won a silver medal, he got his 1st international recognition. He first threw farther than 70 metres at the Senior Nationals of 2014.

• With such a throw of 81.04 metres in 2015’s Pan Indian Inter-University Athletics competition, Chopra shattered the world record of the division of juniors. His first throw beyond 80 metres came then.

• Chopra relocated to Panchkula in the year of 2016 to prepare in Patiala, at the Netaji Subhas National Institute of Sports, after finishing sixth in the 2015 Games National-level in Kerala and was called back for a nationwide training camp.

• Since he was given access to better resources than he had at Panchkula, such as better facilities, higher-quality food, and more advanced training, Chopra considers entering the national camp to have been a pivotal moment in his career. He asserts that training alongside elite javelin throwers made him happier.

• Chopra will be coached by Kashinath Naik, who won bronze in the javelin at the Commonwealth Games in 2010.

• On February 9 in Guwahati, Chopra achieved a new personal record at the athletics finals of the South Asian Games. With a shot of 82.23 metres, he won the gold medal, almost missing the 83-meter threshold required to qualify for the Olympics.
• In February 2016, he started working out with Australian trainer Gary Calvert.

• Chopra became the first athlete of India to achieve both feats when he took home the gold medal at the 2016 IAAF World Championships of the U20, held in Bydgoszcz, Poland, and set a new junior world mark of 86.48 metres.

• With the help of an 85.23 metres throw, Chopra conquered the gold medal at the Asian Athletics Championships in 2017.

• He set a new personal record of 86.47 metres to triumph in the javelin throw at the Commonwealth Games of 2018 in the men’s category, becoming the first Indian to do so.

• He smashed the record a second time in May 2018 in the Doha Diamond League with a 87.43 metres throw.

• When Chopra made his debut at the Asian Games in August 2018, he carried the Indian team’s flag at the National Parades. 

• On Aug 27th, he shattered the Indian national record for the javelin throw by winning the gold medal in the men’s event at the Asian Games with a 88.06 metres throw.

• Additionally, it was India’s first javelin throw gold medal at an Asian Games.

• Even though Chopra was the only track and field athlete shortlisted by AFI or the Athletics Federation of India for the Major Dhyanchand Khel Ratna in that same year, he still won the Arjuna Award in September of that same year.