Guwahati: Soon after Neeraj Chopra, a native of Khandra village in Panipat district of Haryana clinched a historic gold medal in the men’s javelin throw event with an 87.58-metre effort at the Tokyo Olympics, Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar announced a reward of Rs 6 crore for the athlete.
Khattar said the state government will gift him “Rs 6 crore cash award; a Class-I government job; a plot, anywhere he wants in Haryana, at concessional rates (50 per cent concession); and an athletics centre shall be constructed in Panchkula, Neeraj Chopra shall be its head”.
Neeraj Chopra became only the second Indian to win an individual gold in the Olympics, out-performing the field by some distance to immortalise himself as the first track-and-field Games medal-winner for the country.
The 23-year-old son of a farmer from Khandra village near Panipat in Haryana produced a second round throw of 87.58m in the finals to stun the athletics world and end India’s 100-year wait for a track and field medal in the Olympics.
His was the country’s seventh medal and first gold in this Olympics and he joined shooter Abhinav Bindra (2008 Beijing Games) in an elite and very hard-to-reach club of India’s individual gold winners in the showpiece.
