Team India of course has had a few shining lights, who gave the rest of the athletics world a run for its money in their respective disciplines, from time to time on the global stage. The legendary Milkha Singh charged into the 1960 Rome Olympics having won the gold medals in the 200m and 400m sprints at the Tokyo Asian Games that year. He almost won a 400m bronze in Rome, only to heartbreakingly finish fourth, coming in just 0.1 seconds behind the bronze medallist Malcolm Spence of South Africa. That day in Rome, Milkha Singh couldn't grab an Olympic medal, but he created a National Record which stood for almost 40 years. Anju Bobby George shone brightest when she won the bronze medal in the 2003 World Championships in Paris in the women's long jump event. More recently, Hima Das made headlines in 2018, when she won the 400m gold at the U-20 World Championships. And then of course the crowning glory - javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra's gold at the Tokyo Olympics last year. The biggest prize in world sport - an Olympic gold medal - won by an Indian. The first Indian to win a gold medal at the Olympics in athletics ever and only the second overall (if you count Norman Pritchard's two silvers in the 1900 Games, representing India).
