Neeraj Chopra jumps to 2nd spot in World Javelin Rankings after winning Olympic gold
Indian javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra made a 14-place jump to become no.2 in the World Athletics Men's Rankings, which were updated earlier this week. He was 16th when he arrived at the Tokyo Olympics, and made the impressive jump following the gold medal win in the event.
Neeraj Chopra's gold was also India's first in athletics history at the Games. He hit a 87.58m long throw in his second attempt in the final, which secured a top podium finish.
Germany's Johannes Vetter, who quite surprisingly finished ninth in the final event in Tokyo, remains at the top spot with 1397 ranking points. Neeraj Chopra, meanwhile, has 1315 points.
The highly-rated German was among the favourites to clinch the gold medal at Tokyo Olympics. However, he was far from his best in the medal event, registering a longest throw of 82.52m.
The Tokyo Olympics' silver medallist, Czech Republic's Jakub Vadlejch is fourth in the rankings with 1298 points, while his counterpart Vitezslav Vesely, who clinched the bronze medal, is eighth.
Here are the top-5 in the rankings:
- Johannes Vetter (Germany) - 1397
- Neeraj Chopra (India) - 1315
- Marcin Krukowski (Poland) - 1302
- Jakub Vadlejch (Czech Republic) - 1298
- Julian Weber (Germany) - 1291
Earlier, the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) announced that August 7 (the day Neeraj Chopra won the gold medal) would be celebrated as National Javelin Day every year.
"To encourage javelin throw pan-India, we will celebrate August 7 as National Javelin Day and from next year onwards our affiliated units will hold javelin competitions in their respective states," AFI's Planning Commission chairman Lalit Bhanot said during a felicitation function of the athletes, including Chopra.
"After that we will have inter-district competitions and we will provide javelins (because there will be lot many required).
We will enlarge the competitions in the coming years to become a national event.
