Neeraj Chopra rises to World No 2 after historic Olympics gold

New Delhi: India's Olympic champion Neeraj Chopra jumped a massive 14 places to occupy the second spot in the latest men's javelin throw world rankings, updated earlier this week, after his historic gold-winning feat at the recently concluded Tokyo Games.

This is the 23-year-old Neeraj Chopra’s career-best ranking. He was ranked world No 16 prior to the Summer Games.

The Indian athlete threw the spear at a distance of 87.58m in the final on Saturday to become India’s first-ever track-and-field Olympic medal winner. He also became only the second individual Olympic gold-medallist for the country after shooter Abhinav Bindra.

The only athlete who sits above Neeraj Chopra in the world rankings is Germany’s Johannes Vetter, who could only finish ninth in the men’s javelin throw final at the Tokyo Olympics.

Meanwhile, another Indian javelin thrower Shivpal Singh dropped down two spots to be ranked world No 20. Singh also made his Olympic debut in Tokyo but was unable to make the final.

Rohit Yadav (world No 56), Yashvir Singh (world No. 63) and DP Manu (world No. 84) are the other Indians in the top-100 of the men’s javelin throw.

In the women's category, Annu Rani - the women’s national record holder in javelin, is currently ranked world No 16. She made her Olympics debut at Tokyo 2020 but did not qualify for the final. (UNI)