Javelin thrower Neeraj strikes gold at Sotteville athletics meet
New Delhi, July 18 : India's star javelin-thrower Neeraj Chopra have clinched the gold at the Sotteville Athletics meet in France.
Neeraj, who had won the gold medal at the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games earlier in 2018, threw 85.17 metres to bag the yellow metal with a massive margin late on Tuesday in Sotteville-les-Rouen of the Normandy region.
Moldova's Andrian Mardare threw a distance of 81.48m to take the silver while Edis Matusevicius (79.31m) of Lithuania settled for bronze.
Neeraj's performance was brilliant as he did not falter in even a single attempt and completed each of his rounds. Even as his score of 85.17m came in his fifth attempt, he came close to his eventual winning mark in his third attempt.
Although he clinched the gold with the 85.17m throw, this was not the Indian's best throw. He had earlier improved his own national record with a throw of 87.43 metres at the IAAF Diamond League where he finished fourth in the season-opening leg.
Earlier in the year, Neeraj struck a gold medal for India with a throw of 86.47m in men's Javelin Throw Final at the Commonwealth Games.
The 20-year-old from Panipat is also a part of India's squad for the Asian Games 2018 and all eyes will be on him as he will be gunning for the gold in Jakarta as well.
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Talks about split coaching surprising, important for people to stay in their domain: Gambhir
Visakhapatnam (PTI): India head coach Gautam Gambhir on Saturday came down heavily on theories doing the rounds on social media about split coaching, terming them "surprising" and asked those opinion-makers to stay "in their domain."
After India’s recent 0-2 Test series defeat against South Africa, some influential cricketing names, including an IPL team owner, asked the BCCI to consider appointing separate coaches for red-ball and white ball formats.
"Look, there were a lot of talks because the results didn't go in our favour (in Test series). But the most surprising thing is that not once did any media or journalist wrote that our first Test match (in Kolkata) was played without the captain (Shubman Gill), who didn't bat in both innings (because of a neck injury)," Gambhir said during the post-match press meet after India clinched the ODI series against SA 2-1.
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Gambhir said such opinion makers should refrain from making remarks that have no direct connection with on-field cricketing matters.
“Some people also said things that have nothing to do with cricket. An IPL team owner (Parth Jindal of Delhi Capitals on X) also wrote about split coaching.
“So this is surprising. It's very important for people to stay in their domain. Because if we don't go into someone's domain, then they also don't have the right to come into our domain,” Gambhir added.
Gambhir had also stated his achievements as the red-ball coach in the post-match press conference at Guwahati in what looked like a self-defence mechanism after a series defeat at home.
“I don't give excuses in press conferences. It doesn't mean that you don't show the facts in front of the world or the country. When you go through a transition and when you lose your captain, who is also your main batter in red-ball cricket against such a team (SA).
"Then obviously the results are difficult because you don't have that much experience in red ball cricket. And the surprising thing is that no one even talked about it. All the discussions about wickets, I don't know what all things were said," he noted.
