7th August 2021, the Tokyo Olympics Day-15, goes down in history as a golden day for Independent India. A day no Indian would forget! Yes, independent India got its first-ever medal at athletics in the Olympics- and the color of the medal, the brightest! Neeraj Chopra, the Asian Games Gold Medalist, the Commonwealth Gold medalist comes home with a Gold for India! Bajrang Punia too got a bronze medal in the men’s wrestling 65kg weight category!
The Tokyo Olympics Day-15 ended with China still remaining in the lead, and continuing at the top of the medal table. China has a total of 87 medals. This includes 38 gold medals. The United States has the most medals, i.e., 108 medals. This includes 36 gold medals! Japan remains in the third position with a total of 56 medals including 27 golds! India finishes its Tokyo Olympics Campaign with a total of 7 medals, which includes 1 gold, 2 silvers, and 4 bronze! This, by far, is India’s best-ever performance at the Olympics! Earlier, India had got 6 medals in London Olympics 2012.
India’s Performance on the Tokyo Olympics Day-15
Not A Medal, But The Start Of A New Chapter
The day started for India with Indian women golfers competing in the fourth and final round! India had two golfers participating in the event! Though Diksha Dagar could not grab a lot of attention, Aditi Ashok showed what would be called the most surprising performance of this Olympics for India. For consecutive three days, Aditi had remained in the top three. As the day started, Aditi along with the leading group including Lydia Ko and Nelly Korda looked in good form. Proving true to her name of the ‘Queen of Greens’, Aditi showed some amazing shots, especially at the greens. She was in the lead position for a long time.
However as the day progressed, Aditi came onto the second position with a tie! Things turned around for Aditi just before the game stopped because of the weather. When the game resumed, Lydia Ko, the golfer from New Zealand took the lead! With just one hole remaining, it was difficult for Aditi to make a comeback! She missed the medal just by a single shot! But incredible Aditi surely attracted a lot of international as well as national attention with the kind of performance she gave! Many kids might take interest in golf after taking inspiration from this 25-year old young athlete!
Bajrang Punia Gets A Bronze on Tokyo Olympics Day-15
As opposed to yesterday, where Bajrang seemed to have hurt his right knee against the Irani wrestler, thereby losing the crucial semi-final to Haji Aliev of Azerbaijan, Bajrang looked in much better shape today! Right from the start of the 6-minute long bout, Bajrang was the one dominating the mat! This got him his initial points as Daulat from Kazakhstan was declared Passive and Bajrang got the first points!
However, Bajrang made the impact and caught the opponent a couple of times. As soon as he was able to make a tight grip on Daulat’s legs, it was almost a game-over situation for Daulat. Still, Daulat’s defense must get the credit as he saved himself from crucial positions and prevented a loss by technical superiority or by fall! However, he could not prevent the ultimate result and lost to Bajrang! Thus, Bajrang Punia got the second wrestling medal for India in this edition of the Olympics!
Neeraj Bringing The First Athletics Gold For A Country Of 1.3 Billion
Neeraj Chopra, the 23-year old Javelin Thrower of India created history by becoming the first athlete to get a medal for India- that too a gold! He was one of the biggest medal hopes in the Indian Contingent. However, he was not the favorite for the Gold! In fact, a lot of people and experts were reluctant of the fact that Neeraj could end up in the top two. Owing to the fact that Neeraj had a personal best of 88.06m. While the Gold medal favorite from the event, Johannes Vetter, the German athlete had a personal best of 97.76m, that too coming last year. Vetter has a record of throwing 90s and had crossed the 90 marks on 7 prior occasions!
However, Neeraj’s first throw of 87.07 made it almost sure that he was surely in the race for the medals, but it still was if Vetter could finish with a better throw! However, Vetter could throw only 82.52m. In the next attempt, Neeraj threw an even better distance of 87.58m. Vetter made a foul in his next attempt and also stumbled while throwing the Javelin. He fouled his next attempt too. Thereby, Johannes Vetter, to everyone’s shock could not even remain in the top 8 and got eliminated halfway through!
Neeraj’s massive 87.58 turned out to be the gold getter. The surprise was also for the fact that none of the Germans could make it to the podium. The second and third position was taken by the men from the Czech Republic. And the 38-year-old Vítězslav Veselý, defied all the odds to bag the Bronze!
Thus, as it is said, all’s well that ends well, India’s Golden ending at the Tokyo Olympics probably could be a sign of the golden future that lies ahead! As Neeraj mentioned right after his medal ceremony, the age-old dream of India’s first, most promising athlete Milkha Singh Ji finally came true! It is a bitter-sweet feeling that the legend himself could not live to watch this beautiful day! Still, he would surely be showering his blessings on Neeraj! The proud Indian contingent would be coming home soon! And yes, the number of medals does not define the efforts that our athletes have made! India is proud of all its athletes!
Stay tuned to Akashbaani for more Olympic updates!
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Tokyo Olympics Day-14: Bajrang loses Semi-final, will play for Bronze
Tokyo Olympics Day-13: Silver To Ravi, Men’s Hockey Team Grabs an Olympic Medal after 41 years
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