Ashish Yadav won silver in the men's javelin at the World Athletics U20 Championships with a 74.09m throw, becoming India's second medallist in the event after Neeraj Chopra.
Ashish Yadav, a 19 year old clinched the silver medal in men’s javelin throw at the World Athletics U20 Championship here on Friday, making him the second Indian after Neeraj Chopra to win a medal in this event at junior world championships.
Ashish Yadav commenced the final round with an initial mark of 69.96m, fouled the second throw but succeeded with the best of his throws in the third attempt at 74.09m to finish with the silver medal. Heymans of South Africa won the gold medal by throwing the javelin to a distance of 80.50m with his sixth and final attempt, which was the best in the U20 category of the world in that year.
Yadav along with his fellow countryman T. Dharanidharan had failed to qualify because they had not thrown the javelin beyond the qualifying distance of 72.50m. Nevertheless, both qualified for the final round – Yadav as the second best qualifier at 69.87m and Dharanidharan with the last qualifying mark of 68.07m. Heymans was leading qualifying marks at 76.02m. In the final round, Dharanidharan ended up in sixth place with 72.35 metres, achieved on his fifth attempt in the final.
The same competition was won by Neeraj Chopra a decade ago, during the year 2016 in Bydgoszcz, with a world junior record of 86.48 m, which remains the record till today. Chopra had written a congratulatory post on X congratulating Yadav and saying how good it feels to see Indian sportsmen win on an international level, and how it felt somewhat personal since he is himself a javelin thrower. He referred to himself as being proud, saying it was only the beginning. The Chief Minister of Uttarakhand, Pushkar Singh Dhami, also congratulated Yadav for the same.
The silver medal for Yadav was the first medal for India in the championship on the third day of the event. Mohammed Ashfaq placed eighth in the 400m men’s finals when he ran 46.20 seconds. He had previously clocked 45.81 seconds in the heats of the championship which was a national record. India is participating in the championship with 36 participants comprising of 23 men and 13 women. More than 1800 competitors from 147 federations are participating in this championship, which is the biggest championship in its history. The other personal best for the year was the throw of 74.49 meters in Patiala by Yadav.
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