New Delhi, Aug 9 (IANS): Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday spoke to the Paris Olympics silver medallist javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra and hailed the sportsman spirit of his family.
PM Modi congratulated the Olympian on bagging a silver medal in the Paris Games and also advised him to not worry about missing the gold as he has already made the nation proud with his feat.
Neeraj, who came into the final as the favourite with a brilliant effort of 89.34 metres in the qualifying round, hurled the spear to 89.45, his second-best ever effort and a clear improvement on the 87.58 that bagged him the gold medal in Tokyo, to finish behind Pakistan's Arshad Nadeem, who won the gold medal with an Olympic record-shattering 92.97m attempt.
"You’ve once again brought glory to the country. Millions of people were watching you with hope, even at 3 AM," PM said to Neeraj.
Neeraj, who won the gold in Tokyo Games, replied, "The entire nation's hope for gold couldn't be fulfilled due to the injury. Ups and downs are part of the game. We'll work even harder in the future."
Notably, Arshad crossed the 90m mark twice to set a massive Olympic record, held by Andreas Thorkildsen of Norway (90.57m in Beijing 2008), to win Pakistan's first Olympic medal since Barcelona 1992.
PM Modi also lauded the sportsman spirit shown by Neeraj's mother (Saroj Devi), recalling her interview in which she said, "The guy who won gold (Arshad Nadeem) is also my child".
The Prime Minister further inquired about Neeraj's injury, to which the Olympian said, "We'll make a decision after discussing it with the team. The competition was very tough. In such a situation, making the throw and bringing a medal for the country is a great joy."
"You did really well. I remember last time you mentioned that the competition in javelin is tough. The way you managed even after the injury is truly remarkable. Just let go of the gold from your mind..." the PM added.
Meanwhile, Neeraj became the second Indian men's athlete and third overall to win back-to-back medals in the Olympics after wrestler Sushil Kumar, who won a bronze and silver in the 2008 and 2012 Games.
Shuttler PV Sindhu is the other Indian to win consecutive medals—silver in Rio and bronze in Tokyo -- at the Games.