Neeraj Chopra Wins Gold In First Competition On Indian Soil In Three Years

Olympic champion Neeraj Chopra won the gold medal in men's javelin throw event of the Federation Cup in Bhubaneswar, his spear shimmering through the balmy Wednesday evening sky after an unusually slow start in his first competitive outing on Indian soil in three years. Having arrived in the city on the eve of his competition after finishing second in the Doha Diamond League, the 26-year-old superstar did not set the stage ablaze and was placed second after three rounds.

Chopra, however, took the lead in the fourth round with an effort of 82.27m and did not take the last two throws (fifth and sixth) as he was leading after DP Manu, who settled for silver, had finished his final round throw.

Chopra was representing Haryana. Manu of Karnataka came second with 82.06m effort, while Uttam Balasaheb Patil of Maharashtra was third with 78.39m.

Local man and Asian Games silver medallist Kishore Jena finished fifth with a disappointing 75.49m. Jena had qualified for the Paris Olympics when he threw 87.54m for the Asian Games silver medal in Hangzhou, China last year.

Meanwhile, SS Sneha of Karnataka became the fastest woman of the meet, winning the 100m gold with a time of 11.63 seconds. Giridhrani Ravi of Tamil Nadu (11.67) and Srabani Nanda (11.76) of Odisha were second and third respectively.

Gurindervir Singh of Punjab took the 100m dash gold with a time of 10.35 seconds. Odisha's Animesh Kujur, who won 200m gold on Tuesday, was second in 10.50 while another Punjab athlete Harjit Singh was third in 10.56.

Apart from men's javelin throw, the men's triple jump was the other event which had almost all the country's top athletes but the competition never rose to great heights.

National record holder Praveen Chitravel of Tamil