Neeraj Chopra won a historic silver in the World Athletics Championships in Oregon to become the second Indian after Anju Bobby George to win India a medal at the event.

Chopra’s silver makes it the best ever finish by an Indian athlete at the World Championships. Anju Bobby George had won bronze in Paris 2003.

Chopra’s 88.13m throw with his 4th attempt saw him finish second behind defending world champion Anderson Peters of Grenada. Czech Republic’s Jakub Vadlejch took bronze with an 88.09m throw.

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The second Indian in the final, 21-year-old Rohit Yadav finished 10th with a best throw of 78.72m

Neeraj Chopra’s attempts: X, 82.39, 86.37, 88.13, X, X (Silver medal)

Final results of men's JT

Position ATHLETE NAT MARK
1 Anderson PETERS GRN 90.54 
2 Neeraj CHOPRA IND 88.13 
3 Jakub VADLEJCH CZE 88.09 
4 Julian WEBER GER 86.86 
5 Arshad NADEEM PAK 86.16 SB
6 Lassi ETELÄTALO FIN 82.70 SB
7 Andrian MARDARE MDA 82.26 
8 Oliver HELANDER FIN 82.24 
9 Roderick Genki DEAN JPN 80.69 
10 Rohit YADAV IND 78.72 
11 Curtis THOMPSON USA 78.39 
12 Ihab ABDELRAHMAN EGY 75.99 

Chopra took his time to get started, after an intentional foul and a 82.39m. He then improved again, throwing a best of 86.37m in his third attempt even as Anderson Peters sent the javelin flying beyond 90m with his first two attempts.

Trailing outside the medal positions, Neeraj, fourth behind Vadlejch and German Julian Weber, threw a massive 88.13m with his fourth try to jump to the silver medal position.

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The Tokyo Olympics champion needed to throw better than Peters’ 90.46m to clinch gold but fouled out with his final two attempts. The Indian winced after both his final throws as Peters celebrated defending his title by throwing the javelin 90.54m to better his mark.

But in the end, it was yet another historic global performance by the Indian as he went where no one from the country has gone before.