Neeraj Chopra Soars But Indian Athletics Remains Stagnant

Neeraj Chopra continued to break new grounds as he clinched the only gold medal missing in his decorated trophy cabinet but most of his compatriots flattered to deceive once again at the World Athletics Championships. Indian athletes have won a total of three medals at the marquee event so far, with Chopra accounting for two of those - one silver and one gold. Legendary long jumper Anju Bobby George had won a bronze in the 2003 edition. On Sunday night, the man with the gold arm scripted history again as hurled the javelin to a distance of 88.17m to become the first Indian to win the coveted yellow metal in World Athletics Championships.

However, the men's javelin gold is expectedly the only medal the Indian contingent takes home from Budapest. Despite reaching the finals in four events, the harsh reality is that no Indian apart from Chopra was considered a serious contender.

In the last edition, six Indians had made it to the finals. And there wasn't much change in the number of Indians qualifying for the finals this year.

Those who reached the final included javelin throwers Chopra, DP Manu ad Kishore Jena, 3000m steeple chaser Parul Chaudhary, long jumper Jeswin Aldrin and the men's relay team.

However, there was disappointment aplenty for the Indians this time round.

Much was expected in the long jump event. The duo of Jeswin Aldrin and Murali Sreeshankar had entered the meet as season leaders. However, the former finished 11th while the latter failed to make the final.

Similarly, 3000m steeplechaser Avinash Sable was tipped to be the one of the best Indian performers after Chopra but the national record holder bungled up his heat to crash out of the event.

"Last time was good. If you compare this time against last