Indian javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra won the Sportstar Aces Award for the Sportstar of the Year (Male) at the Taj Mahal Palace in Mumbai on Monday.
This was his consecutive Aces Award in the same category. The Haryana-born athlete also won the Sportsman of the Year (track and field) award in the previous edition of the awards.
Despite missing the 2022 Commonwealth Games with an injury just before the tournament, the 25-year-old never finished outside the top two in any of the six competitions he competed in last year.
A year after he won gold at the Tokyo Olympics, Chopra started his season with a new national record at the Paavo Nurmi Games in Finland, with a throw of 89.30m, breaking his own national record of 88.07m set at the Indian Grand Prix in Patiala in 2021.
Within 15 days, he broke his own record again, with a throw of 89.94m at the Stockholm Diamond League.
In July, Chopra became the first Indian man to win a medal (silver) at the Athletics World Championships, in Oregon, USA.
At the Diamond League final in Zurich, he became the first Indian to win the prestigious Diamond League Finals title and ended the season as World No. 2.
In the space of 13 months, Chopra became an Olympic champion, World Championships silver medallist and a Diamond League champion – a testimony of his consistency at the top level.
Legendary India cricketer Sunil Gavaskar, former India hockey captain M. M. Somaya, chess great Viswanathan Anand, former India football skipper Bhaichung Bhutia, Olympic gold medallist Abhinav Bindra, and Olympians Anjali Bhagwat and Aparna Popat are the members of the Sportstar Aces 2023 jury.
The event is supported by IDFC First Bank, Indian Oil, India Cements, United India, Ramaiah University, Experimenta Science Center GD Naidu Charity, Finolex Pipes, LIC, BPCL, Samsonite, Big Basket, Nippon Paint, CRICHQ, Wordswork, NewsX, and Casagrand.
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