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Javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra left his mark on the Tokyo Games after becoming India’s first gold-medallist in 13 years following a stupendous performance in the men’s Javelin Throw final on Saturday.
Following Chopra's gold on the last day of the country’s athletes’ competition schedule, India signed off with seven medals, including two silver and four bronze, the last of which was delivered by superstar wrestler Bajrang Punia.
In shoring up India's performance, Chopra achieved several firsts: He is the youngest Indian to win an Olympics gold, the first in track-and-field to do so and the only one to do it in his debut Games.
At 23, he joined Abhinav Bindra in the select gold club, but beat the ace shooter on age as the latter was 25 when he claimed the top prize in the 2008 Beijing Games.
The medals haul in Tokyo surpassed the previous best of six, achieved in the 2012 London Games where there was no gold.
It is also the first time that India won across varied disciplines. There were weightlifting and wrestling silver medals through Mirabai Chanu and Ravi Kumar Dahiya respectively.
The four bronze medals came from badminton star P V Sindhu, boxer Lovlina Borgohain, Punia and the men's hockey team, which finished on the podium for the first time in 41 years.
On Saturday, Punia won a bronze medal on Olympics debut after outwitting Daulet Niyazbekov in the men's freestyle 65kg play-off after the country raised a toast to golfer Aditi Ashok, who came agonisingly close to a podium finish before ending up fourth.
Here’s a look at the country’s athletes' showing at the Games on Saturday, August 7.
ATHLETICS
Neeraj Chopra finished first to win the gold medal in men's javelin throw.
GOLF
Aditi Ashok and Diksha Dagar finished fourth and Tied-50th respectively in the women's Individual stroke play.
WRESTLING
Bajrang Punia beat Kazakhstan’s Daulet Niyazbekov in the men's 65kg freestyle bronze medal match 8-0.