“Mere Desh Ki Dharti Sona Ugle, Ugle Heere Moti”: Sunil Gavaskar On Neeraj Chopra’s Historic Gold Win At World Athletics C’ship

Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India] : Former Indian cricketer Sunil Gavaskar on Monday congratulated ‘Golden Boy’ Neeraj Chopra on winning India’s first-ever gold medal at the World Athletics Championships and said that his medal will motivate other sports to push for better performance in their respective disciplines.

Neeraj recorded his best throw of 88.17 m in his second attempt and managed to keep his lead intact till the very end to win Gold at Budapest. Pakistan’s Arshad Nadeem, the Commonwealth Games champion with 87.82 m got a silver medal. Czech Republic’s Jakub Vadlejch secured the bronze with the best throw of 86.67 m.

“I am pleased because the other sports like a relay, we saw Neeraj two years earlier clinching the gold medal. He earned a silver last year in the World Athletics Championships. So it was important for him to win gold. This time Neeraj was not alone along with him two more Indians were also there in the final. When one person does well other athletes also get encouraged to perform better. I remember during the Olympics, India was playing against England and we were sitting there and I sang “mere desh ki dharti sona ugle ugle here moti” It was similar to that,” Sunil Gavaskar said at an event in Mumbai.

Gavaskar believes that Neeraj’s gold medal will motivate others too and if one player does well in a sport then that sport gets a push.

“I felt so happy and it felt good because it is also important that other sports also do well…It was important for Neeraj to get Gold this time and he did that by doing a long throw. It motivates others. In this championship, other than Neeraj there were three other Indian javelin throwers in the finals. If one player does well in a sport then that sport gets a push,” former Indian cricketer said.

The 16th edition of the Asia Cup tournament is scheduled to start on August 30 – September 17 and will be jointly hosted by Pakistan and Sri Lanka. India will kickstart their campaign against arch-rival Pakistan from September 2 onwards.

“Rivalry…It has always been there between certain countries such as India and England because there’s been a history. In recent times there has been Australia and India…All the matches and particularly in the Asia Cup, Sri Lanka has been winning the Asia Cup so the rivalry between these three countries is always something special,” Gavaskar said.