Neeraj Chopra's Olympic gold takes him to number two in World Rankings

The Indian javelin thrower rose to number two in the world rankings after he won independent India's first gold medal in athletics at the Tokyo Olympics.

Neeraj Chopra with his gold medal from the Tokyo Olympics

Indian javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra has jumped 14 spots to occupy second place in the latest world rankings courtesy his gold medal at the recently concluded Tokyo Olympics.

The 23-year-old was ranked 16th in mid-July before the Games began. Neeraj currently has a ranking score of 1315 and is now second only to Germany's Johannes Vetter (1396). 

, Olympic GOLD medalist and now the World No. 2!

Only Johannes Vetter is ahead of him, by 81 points.#CraftingVictoriespic.twitter.com/xrb8eEN3NM

— Inspire Institute of Sport (@IIS_Vijayanagar) August 11, 2021

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Poland's Marcin Krukowski, Czech Republic's Jakub Vadlejch (who won silver at the Tokyo Games) and Germany's Julian Weber make up top five in the rankings.

Chopra created history on August 7 as he became the first athlete from the country to win a gold in track and field in the Olympics. He threw the javelin to a distance of 87.58m to win gold at the Tokyo Games.

Germany's Vetter, who came into the Olympics with a string of relatively mellow throws to his name, failed to make the final at Tokyo. 81 points separate the duo as they focus their energies on the World Championships in Oregon next year. Chopra will also aim at a podium finish at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, to be held next year as well.