NEW DELHI: He may be the first gold medalist for India in athletics and one of the best sportspersons the country has produced, but Neeraj Chopra remains humble and modest as ever.
Though Neeraj failed to defend his Tokyo gold medal in the javelin final in Paris, losing to Pakistan‘s Arshad Nadeem, he didn’t let the disappointment stop him from congratulating his archrival and friend from across the border.
And now a video is doing the rounds on the internet where Neeraj is speaking at a function and humbly ‘apologizes’ for his performance in Paris.
While showing his silver medal to the crowd, Neeraj says in the video in Hindi, “There’s nothing much to say, but I’ve brought something to show you all, sorry, like last time, there was no national anthem was played, what I had thought, didn’t happen but medal is medal, I had worked hard and winning a medal for the country and taking a lap of the track with the flag, that’s a different feeling all together.”
Though Neeraj failed to defend his Tokyo gold medal in the javelin final in Paris, losing to Pakistan‘s Arshad Nadeem, he didn’t let the disappointment stop him from congratulating his archrival and friend from across the border.
And now a video is doing the rounds on the internet where Neeraj is speaking at a function and humbly ‘apologizes’ for his performance in Paris.
While showing his silver medal to the crowd, Neeraj says in the video in Hindi, “There’s nothing much to say, but I’ve brought something to show you all, sorry, like last time, there was no national anthem was played, what I had thought, didn’t happen but medal is medal, I had worked hard and winning a medal for the country and taking a lap of the track with the flag, that’s a different feeling all together.”
Neeraj won India’s sole silver medal in the Paris Games with a season’s best throw of 89.45m in javelin and became the first Indian to win an Olympic gold and a silver in athletics.
The event was dominated by Arshad Nadeem, who won gold with a massive throw of 92.97m – an Olympic record to secure Pakistan’s first Olympic medal since 1992.