Olympic Updates: Neeraj Chopra Makes History Wins 1st Gold, Bajrang wins bronze medal

News Highlights

Neeraj Chopra won GOLD in the men’s javelin throw.
At the Tokyo Olympics, India has earned its first gold medal.
At the Tokyo Olympics, Bajrang Punia won bronze in men’s freestyle 65kg wrestling.

Olympic Updates: Neeraj Chopra Makes History Wins 1st Gold, Bajrang wins bronze medal

Neeraj Chopra Makes History Wins 1st Gold

At the Olympic Games, Neeraj Chopra won GOLD in the men’s javelin throw. He has now become the first Indian athlete to ever win a gold medal. He had qualified for the finals with a remarkable throw of 86.65m on his first try on Wednesday, which put him in first place in the qualification round. He set a new record of 87.58m in the finals (in the second of six attempts).

India now has a total of seven medals from the Olympic Games this year. After the 2008 Beijing Olympics, India has won its first gold medal. Abhinav Bindra won a last gold medal. Chopra is only 23 years old, yet he has already made history in an Indian sport that is rarely discussed.

Bajrang wins bronze medal

At the Tokyo Olympics, India’s Bajrang Punia won the bronze medal in men’s freestyle 65kg wrestling, defeating Kazakhstan’s Daulet Niyazbekov. Punia won India’s sixth medal in the Games this year and the country’s fourth bronze.

Punia, one of India’s main competitors at the games this year, won the bronze medal match against Niyazbekov by an 8-0 score.

Punia took a point in the men’s freestyle 65kg bronze medal match when Niyazbekov failed to score in the 30 seconds attacking zone. The Indians added another score to take a 2-0 lead into halftime.

Punia began to attack in the final three minutes, scoring two more points on a takedown to establish a 4-0 lead. The Indian subsequently scored four more points with two more takedowns, giving Kazakhstan’s wrestler no chance.

Punia joined KD Jadhav, Sushil Kumar, Yogeshwar Dutt, Sakshi Malik, and Ravi Kumar Dahiya as the sixth Indian wrestler to reach the Olympic podium. After the 2012 London Olympics, this was the second time two Indian wrestlers won medals in the same Games. Ravi Dahiya had previously competed in this Olympics and won silver in the men’s 57 kg division. Recently, Bajrang had a knee injury. Bajrang is battling this issue in the Tokyo Olympics.