Indian poster boy in Athletics and Tokyo Olympics Gold Medal winner Neeraj Chopra has thanked the Honourable Prime Minister of India, Shri Narendra Modi. Chopra thanked him after meeting Modi at his residence earlier this week. “It was a great honour to meet Hon’ble Prime Minister @narendramodi at his residence. Thank you for your active support to Indian sports and athletes,” wrote Neeraj while sharing a series of photos with PM Modi.
The photos were from the felicitation ceremony arranged on Monday when the Indian Tokyo Olympics contingent was invited to the official residence of PM Modi to have breakfast with him.
Neeraj Chopra was obviously one of the star attractions at the ceremony. The javelin thrower created history when he clinched India’s first Olympic medal in Athletics that too a Gold medal. He hurled his spear to a distance of 87.58 metres on his second attempt in the finals to secure the elusive gold medal for the country.
During PM Modi’s interaction with the athletes, he was very excited to speak with Neeraj Chopra. He hailed the javelin thrower for his exceptional achievement at the Tokyo Olympics in Athletics. He said, “When you threw your second attempt, you celebrated straight away, this can only come on the back of a lot of confidence.”
Hearing it from Prime Minister Narendra Modi was an overwhelming feeling for the 23-year-old. Neeraj may have won the gold medal at an Olympics, but he is still a youngster and PM Modi praising him was a big feat for the youngster from Panipat. Therefore he replied, “Sir confidence comes from training, my training was good so I was confident after my second throw. Our game depends on our opponents too but we have to give our best. We need to focus on ourselves.”
Lastly, PM Modi appreciated Neeraj and said, “I have seen that success doesn’t get to your head and loss doesn’t stay in your mind…”
Neeraj has gained 14 spots in terms of the World Javelin Rankings and is currently second in the world. This jump is mainly due to his exceptional performance in Tokyo as he secured the gold medal. Only Germany’s Johannes Vetter is ahead of him in rankings.
