Neeraj Chopra bags silver, scripts history by becoming second Indian to finish on the podium

Indian athletics is growing by leaps and bounds. After Neeraj Chopra‘s historic gold medal in the Tokyo Olympics, India sent its biggest ever contingent to a World Athletics Championships at the eighteenth edition in Eugene, Oregon, United States.

And this in turn resulted in the Indian contingent finishing with their best-ever showing in the competition’s history as this is the first time India had six athletes competing in the finals at the World Athletics Championships.

Further, it was also a tournament that will be forever etched in Indian athletics’ history after Neeraj Chopra snapped a silver in the competition becoming only the second Indian to win a medal at the World Championships after Anju Bobby George won a bronze in 2003 in Paris.

While Chopra’s victory clad in silver certainly steals the show and hogs the limelight, credit should be given where it’s due to the other five athletes who made it to the finals of the World Athletics Championships 2022.

Neeraj once again finished with a podium finish, thereby ending a 19-year-drought since India won its first at the Worlds.

Apart from Chopra, there was Annu Rani (Javelin Throw), Rohit Yadav (Javelin Throw), Murali Sreeshankar (Long Jump), Eldhose Paul (Triple Jump), and Avinash Sable (3000m Steeplechase).

Annu Rani bettered her 8th place finish in the 2019 edition after moving up a place this year after she finished 7th with a best throw of 61.12m. In the men’s final, Yadav finished at 10th place with 78.72m being his highest on his World Championships debut.

Eldhose’s feat of reaching the Triple Jump final was alone noteworthy as he was the first Indian to do so at the World Championships, that too on his debut at the Worlds. While he couldn’t better his Personal Best of 16.99m, Paul finished 9th with 16.79m distance being his longest.

Long Jumper Sreeshankar failed to impress in the final with a disappointing 7.96m, as compared to his personal best of 8.36m, a distance which eventually won China’s Jianan Wang the gold at the Worlds. However, Sreeshankar’s 7th position finish places him right behind Chopra as the second-best placed Indian athlete in the 2022 edition.

Finally, it was a downer for Avinash Sable and his performance in the 3000m Steeplechase; His 8:31:75 placed him at the 11th position. The timing was far behind his personal best of 8:12:48, which also happens to be the National record.

While there is certainly plenty of room for improvement for all the aforementioned Indian athletes, the achievement of reaching the finals should be lauded and seen as a stepping stone ahead of the crucial 2022 CommonWealth Games which set are set to start shortly in a few days.