Neeraj Chopra on Saturday not only won gold for India, but also helped it surpass the previous best haul of six medals achieved in the 2012 London Games. With his gold in men's javelin throw, India's medal tally has gone up to 7 - highest so far in any Olympics. India now have one gold, two silver and four bronze medals.
The 23-year-old javelin thrower created history with his gold as he became the first to win a medal in athletics since the country started taking part in the Games in 1920 in Antwerp, Belgium. Among the athletes who have bagged medals in this season for India are Neeraj Chopra, Mirabai Chanu, Ravi Kumar Dahiya, Lovlina Borgohain, PV Sindhu, Bajrang Punia and Men's Hockey Team.
For India, first medal came in weightlifting, in which Mirabai Chanu won Silver. On the 7th day of the quadrennial event, Lovlina Borgohain secured the second medal for the country in boxing. She won Bronze. Ace shutter PV Sindhu, too, won bronze by defeating Bing Jiao of China.
Medal winners for India
Gold - Neeraj Chopra (Men's Javelin Throw)
Silver - Mirabai Chanu (Weightlifting: Women's 49kg )
Silver - Ravi Kumar Dahiya (Wrestling: Men's 57kg freestyle)
Bronze - Lovlina Borgohain (Boxing: Women's Welterweight)
Bronze - PV Sindhu (Badminton: Women's singles)
Bronze - Men's Hockey Team
Bronze - Bajrang Punia (Wrestling: Men's 65kg freestyle)
This time, there were several notable firsts in terms of participation at Tokyo Olympics. For the first time in its history, a fencer from India (Bhavani Devi) had qualified for the Olympic Games. Bhavani won the first match 15/3 against Nadia Azizi of Tunisia and became the first Indian fencing player to win a match at Olympics. But in the second match, she lost 7/15 against world top 3 player Manon Brunet of France.
Nethra Kumanan was the first ever female Sailor from India to qualify for an Olympic Games. Sajan Prakash and Srihari Nataraj were the first Swimmers from India to qualify for an Olympic Games by achieving the ‘A’ Qualification Standard in Swimming.
While boxing was also expected to bring more than a single bronze medal, there were also a few near misses - the women's hockey team, Aditi Ashok in women's golf and Deepak Punia in men's freestyle 86kg wrestling finished fourth to miss out. Particularly satisfying were their exploits in a game they once dominated with clinical ruthlessness - hockey.
The women's team were lauded as superstars with their fourth spot while a euphoric India celebrated the country's first hockey medal in 41 years, hoping the hard-earned men's bronze would help them to regain their past glory.
The most successful hockey nation in Olympic history, with eight men's titles, India had not won a medal since the 1980 Moscow Games when they topped the podium. Chopra's gold ensured that all was not lost for the Olympians, who are dwarfed by the country's cricket stars when it comes to sponsorship and popularity.
