New Delhi: The Delhi Police has come up with a creative social media post to spread awareness about road safety and following traffic rules by referring to Neeraj Chopra’s victory in the men’s javelin at the World Athletics Championships. “Be like Neeraj Chopra. Win hearts, not challans,” the police wrote in a post on X. It further stated, “To drivers and riders, you are not Neeraj’s javelin, and crossing the white lines will not get you points or medals.” Reacting to the post, one of the users suggested that lane driving must be enforced on priority.
Be like #NeerajChopra
Win hearts, not Challans. pic.twitter.com/aNzV6acGpF
— Delhi Police (@DelhiPolice) August 28, 2023
Neeraj Chopra Scripts History, Becomes First Indian To Win Gold Medal In World Athletics Championships
Olympic champion Neeraj Chopra on Sunday scripted history yet again as he became the first Indian to win a gold medal in the World Athletics Championships with a big throw of 88.17m in the men’s javelin final in Budapest.
In another first, three Indians finished in the top eight with Kishore Jena (84.77m) and DP Manu (84.14m) taking the fifth and sixth spots respectively. Never before did three Indians finish in top eight of an event in the World Championships.
The 25-year-old Chopra achieved his best throw of the day in his second attempt. He had a foul to start with, but then got 88.17m, 86.32m, 84.64m, 87.73m and 83.98m. Pakistan’s reigning Commonwealth Games champion Arshad Nadeem took the silver with his season’s best throw of 87.82m, while Jakub Vadlejch of the Czech Republic got the bronze.
Chopra has now become only the second Indian – after legendary shooter Abhinav Bindra – to simultaneously hold the Olympics and World Championships title. Bindra won the World Championships title when he was 23, and the Olympics gold at 25.
Chopra, who had become the first Indian Olympic track and field gold medallist in the Tokyo Games in 2021, had won a silver in the 2022 edition of the World Championships.
Before him, legendary long jumper Anju Bobby George had won a bronze in the 2003 World Championships. The Indian superstar also became only the third javelin thrower in history to simultaneously hold the Olympics and World Championships titles after the iconic Jan Zelezny of the Czech Republic and Andreas Thorkildsen of Norway.
Zelezny clinched Olympics gold in 1992, 1996 and 200 while winning World Championships titles in 1993, 1995 and 2001. Thorkildsen won gold in the 2008 Olympics and 2009 World Championships.
With his feat on Sunday, Chopra has won every title his sport has to offer. He has won gold in the Asian Games (2018) and Commonwealth Games (2018), besides four individual Diamond League Meeting titles (two each in 2022 and 2023) and the Diamond League champion’s trophy last year. He also became junior world champion in 2016 and won the Asian Championships title in 2017.