"I am proud to bring another title to my country."
Neeraj Chopra became the first Indian to win a gold medal at the World Athletics Championships.
In Budapest, he secured gold in the men’s javelin.
The Olympic champion threw 88.17m to defeat Pakistan’s Arshad Nadeem, who took silver with a season’s best 87.82m.
Chopra, who won silver at the 2022 championships, said:
“It was my dream to win gold at the world championships.
“This has been a great championships for India and I am proud to bring another title to my country.”
On his reaction to becoming world champion, Chopra said he controlled his tears and wants to deliver a better performance next time.
He continued: “I thought I’d get emotional but didn’t cry.
“I tend to control myself emotionally but these are proud moments and the adrenaline is such that you end up crying sometimes.
“Hopefully, I’ll throw better next time and cry with you all.
“Even after the second throw today, I was thinking that I should be pushing myself more as I was feeling that a better throw would come.
“But, you know the kind of pressure these situations bring. Be it technique or speed, something falls behind.
“The recovery time between the qualifiers and the final was also just one day. It was also a big factor. I always tell myself that I have to push myself till the last throw.”
The only other medal winner at a World Athletics Championships came in 2003 when Anju Bobby George won bronze in the women’s long jump.
Neeraj Chopra qualified for the final with a season-best of 88.77m.
Despite winning gold, Chopra believes he could have performed better.
He said: “I don’t think I am the best thrower here. I wanted to throw more.
“I wanted to throw more than 90m but it needs all parts of the puzzle to be there.
“I couldn’t put it all together this evening. Maybe next time.”
After claiming the historic feat, Neeraj Chopra said world record holder Jan Zelezny is the greatest javelin thrower of all time.
He added: “I won’t say I am the greatest of all time. I have to improve more. The greatest of all time is Jan Zelezny when it comes to the javelin.
“The biggest thing is I still have many more throws in me and the saying goes that ‘throwers don’t have a finishing line’.
“So I can push myself, it is motivation to see how many medals one can win.
“Winning medals does not mean we have done everything. There are so many athletes who have won multiple medals. So I will push myself much more and work harder.”
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