India's javelin star Neeraj Chopra kicked off his Olympic title defense with an 89.34m attempt in the qualification round on Tuesday at the ongoing Paris Olympics. Neeraj's throw in the qualifier was his season best attempt, and was also close of his personal best (89.94), landing him a direct entry into the final. Neeraj will now bid for a second successive gold at the Olympics on Thursday during the men's javelin throw final. As Neeraj secured his place in the final of the event, Indian cricketer Rishabh Pant made a bold promise to fans on social media.
Taking to social media platform X, Pant promised that he would pick one lucky winner from the people who like and comment on his post and give him/her Rs 1,00,089, only in Neeraj wins gold on Thursday.
"If Neeraj chopra win a gold medal tomorrow. I will pay 100089 Rupees to lucky winner who likes the tweet and comment most . And for the rest top 10 people trying to get the atttention will get flight tickets . Let's get support from india and outside the world for my brother," Pant made the announcement via X on Wednesday.
Pant's announcement sparked similar responses from fans. A parody account of star India batter Virat Kohli also promised to give two lucky fans Rs 50,000 if Neeraj does win the gold.
Much like his qualifying round performance in the Tokyo Olympics, the 26-year-old crossed the automatic qualifying mark of 84m in his opening throw to occupy the top spot in Group B.
The tremendous effort, which is the second best of his career, also set aside concerns surrounding Chopra's fitness after he revealed that he had been battling an adductor niggle in the build-up to the Games. His personal best continues to be 89.94m achieved back in 2022.
Chopra, also the reigning world champion, topped the qualification round -- combined of Group A and B -- with his monster throw. Two-time world champion Anderson Peters (88.63m) of Grenada was second in Group B and he was second overall also.
Julian Weber of Germany, who won Group A with 87.76, was third overall, while reigning Commonwealth Games champion Arshad Nadeem of Pakistan also qualified for the finals with a throw of 86.59m in Group B.
(With PTI Inputs)