Dehradun, Aug 7 (PTI) Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami on Saturday congratulated javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra for winning the gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics and said it was the result of the athlete's hard work.

Chopra on Saturday became only the second Indian to win an individual gold in the Olympics, outperforming the field by quite a distance to notch up the first track-and-field games medal for the country.

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The 23-year-old athlete from Khandra village near Panipat in Haryana, produced a second-round throw of 87.58 metres in the finals to stun the athletics world.

In a video message, Dhami said, "It is for the first time in the history of independent India that the country has struck gold in an athletics event at the Olympics. It is a result of both Neeraj Chopra's hard work and his military discipline."

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"Being the son of a soldier, I am extremely emotional at the moment. I extend my congratulations to his family, too, on his unique achievement," he said.

Chopra won the country's seventh medal and first gold in this Olympics and joined shooter Abhinav Bindra (2008 Beijing Games) as India's individual gold winner.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)