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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Rickelton's ton in vain as SRH beat MI by 6 wickets
Mumbai (PTI): Ryan Rickelton's whirlwind unbeaten ton was overshadowed by Heinrich Klaasen's unbeaten 65 as Sunrisers Hyderabad defeated Mumbai Indians by six wickets in an IPL match here on Wednesday.
Chasing an imposing 244-run target, Travis Head (76 off 30) and Abhishek Sharma (45 off 24) shared 129 runs for the opening wicket to set the platform for SRH.
Klaasen (65 not out off 30 balls) then displayed his all-round hitting abilities to guide SRH home with the help of Nitish Kumar Reddy (21) and Salil Arora (30 not out off 10) in 18.4 overs.
Earlier, Rickelton's knock powered MI to 243 for five.
MI rode on a 93-run stand between Rickelton (123 not out off 55 balls) and Will Jacks (46 off 22) in 7.1 overs for the opening stand to power the side.
MI skipper Hardik Pandya scored a valuable 31 off 15 balls before being dismissed.
Praful Hinge (2/54), Eshan Malinga (1/29), Sakib Hasan (1/39) and Nitish Kumar Reddy (1/31) were the wicket-takers for SRH.
Brief Scores:
Mumbai Indian: 243 for 5 in 20 overs (Ryan Rickelton 123 not out; Praful Hinge 2/54).
Sunrisers Hyderabad: 249 for 4 in 18.4 overs (Travis Head 76, Heinrich Klaasen 65 not out; AM Ghazanfar 2/51).
