Neeraj Chopra broke into a smile after his fourth round throw of 88.13m. The tension was somewhat eased after he moved into the provisional podium place in second position following his best throw of the men’s javelin throw final in Eugene, US.
While a nation was asleep, the reigning Olympic champion created history after becoming the first ever Indian athlete to win a silver at the World athletics championships with his best effort of 88.13m on early Sunday morning (India time) to etch his name in the record books. He, however, failed in his endeavour to become the first javelin thrower after Norwegian track and field great Andreas Thorkildsen to hold both the Olympics and World Championships titles at the same time. Thorkildsen had achieved the feat at the Berlin edition of the Worlds meet.
However, it was Grenadian Anderson Peters who took away the honours after effortlessly throwing the spear to a 90m mark thrice to clinch the gold. Anderson, the reigning World champion, saved the best for his last, launching the spear to a distance of 90.54m in his sixth and final attempt. Before coming to the Worlds, he had a personal best of 93.07m at the Doha Diamond League. In the final, Anderson had a series of 90.21m, 90.46m, 87.21m, 88.11m, 85.83m, 90.54m.
