Neeraj Chopra, the newly crowned gold winner from India in javelin throw in the Tokyo Olympics 2020, dedicated his historic achievement to legend Milkha Singh who recently lost his live in fight against Covid-19 on June 2021.
Milkha Singh who was also known as “The Flying Sikh”, was an Indian track and field sprinter. He started sports while he was serving the Indian Army. Milkha Singh was the only athlete to win gold in 400 meters at the Asian and Common Wealth Games.
Milkha, 91, died in Chandigarh in June after battling COVID-19 for a month.
However, his dream to win gold in the Olympics remained unfulfilled. Milkha Singh dreamed that an Indian athlete wins gold in the Olympics and he would listen to the “National Anthem” being played in the stadium.
Though his dream was not achieved during his stay in the world, he might be very proud of Neeraj Chopra who finally fulfilled his dream and blessing him enormously from where ever he is now.
“Milkha Singh wanted to hear the national anthem in a stadium. He is no longer with us but his dream has been fulfilled,” the 23-year-old javelin thrower said dedicating the achievement to the iconic sprinter, who had finished fourth in the 1960 Rome Olympics.
Neeraj Chopra produced a second-round throw of 87.58m in the finals at the Tokyo Games to claim the country’s first track-and-field medal and become only the second Indian to win an individual gold in the Olympics.
On dedicating his victory to Milkha Singh, Jeev Singh son of Milkha Singh was overwhelmed with “eternal” gratitude. The dedication of the achievement of Neeraj Chopra to his father made him emotional when he took to tweeter to express his gratitude to the champion.
“Dad waited so many years for this to happen. His dream has finally come true with India’s first athletic gold. I am crying as I tweet this. And I am sure dad is crying up above. Thank you for making this happen,” Jeev posted.
“Not only did you win us a first-ever athletics gold medal in the #OlympicGames, you even dedicated it to my father. The Milkha family is eternally grateful for this honour,” he added.
