Incredible, Neeraj Chopra!
He’s the first Indian track and field athlete to be ranked world number one! India’s Neeraj Chopra has once again brought laurels to the nation, as he was named world No. 1 in the latest men’s javelin throw ranking issued by the World Athletics on Monday.
Succeeding Grenada’s Anderson Peter, the star Indian athlete this time favourably managed to dominate the chart table as against his formidable opponent, Peters, a World Athletics Championship gold medalist.
In Monday’s listing, Chopra managed to clinch the world No. 1 position while his predecessor (Peters) failed by a mere 22 points to defend his title again and has to settle for the No. 2 position with 1,433 points. For the third and fourth spots in the coveted ranking, the Czech Republic’s Jakub Vadlejch (1,416 points) and Germany’s Julian Webber (1,385 points) secured their spots, respectively.
Meanwhile, the world No. 1 ranking is seen as a boost for Neeraj Chopra, who is gearing up for a long 2023 athletic season.
Following his Diamond League win earlier this year with a throw of 88.67m in the league, the ace-athlete will be next seen in action competing at the FBK Games 2023 on June 4 in the Netherlands and at the Paavo Nurmi Games 2023 in Turku, Finland, on June 13. From Finland, Neeraj Chopra will then travel to the Czech Republic for the Golden Spike Ostrava on June 27.
The javelin throw ace, who is also the reigning Asian Games champion having won the gold medal in 2018 Asia in Indonesia, will again in September throw his efforts to defend his coveted title at this year’s Asian Games scheduled in Hangzhou, China. Prior to Asian Games in August, Chopra will travel to Hungary for the World Athletics Championships.
India is proud of you- Neeraj Chopra!
As the news of the “Golden Boy of India” clinching the World No. 1 title hit the micro-blogging site, Twitterati went into a frenzy celebrating the huge feat from the Olympic gold medalist.
Taking to Twitter, several users shared their warmest greetings with the Indian Olympian as he made the country proud once again.
Meanwhile, the Athletics Federation of India also congratulated Neeraj Chopra for dominating the coveted world title for the first time.
“Great day for Indian athletics. India’s star javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra takes pole position having 1455 world ranking points in his kitty,” the Federation said.
