CWG 2018 | Throw of gold: Farmer's son triumphs

Creating history seems to have become a routine affair for Neeraj Chopra.

At 18, the javelin thrower won gold at the World Junior Championships in 2016 with a throw of 86.48m. And at 20, the Haryana boy has rewritten the record books yet again, becoming the first Indian javelin thrower to clinch a yellow metal at the Commonwealth Games at Gold Coast on Saturday.

It didn't matter that Chopra's javelin could only travel a distance of 86.47m in the final on Saturday, 0.1m shorter than his career best. What did was that he joined the elite group of Milkha Singh (1958), Krishna Poonia (2010) and Vikas Gowda (2014) as the fourth Indian to win an individual gold medal in athletics in CWG history.

What makes his feat more commendable is that the farmer's son from Khandra village near Panipat never had a formal coach while growing up. He only learnt his initial technique by watching videos of the best in the world on internet.

And, when he got to train under Australian coach Gary Calvert, Chopra took no time to blossom. He now trains under former world record holder Uwe Hohn separately in Germany.

Chopra was favourite to win the top position in his event even before the start of the CWG after he set a new record of 85.94m on Indian soil.

In Saturday's final, Chopra led the field from the word go with his first throw of 85.50m. His victory was a forgone conclusion after Olympics and world silver medallist Julius Yego of Kenya failed to qualify for the final round on Friday.

He finished the job in style, almost repeating his junior World Cup mark in his fourth attempt to achieve the biggest moment in his nascent career.