Celebs cheer for Neeraj Chopra's historic gold medal at WAC 2023: Proud moment for India

Several Bollywood celebrities on Monday congratulated Neeraj Chopra on winning a gold medal in the men's javelin at the World Athletics Championships. Chopra on Sunday scripted history yet again as he became the first Indian to win a gold medal in the World Athletics Championships with a massive throw of 88.17m in the men's javelin final in Budapest, Hungary.

3 things you need to know

• With gold at the 2022 Tokyo Olympics, Chopra became the country's first Olympic track and field gold medal winner. 
• He was 23 when he became only the second Indian to win an individual gold medal in the Olympics after shooter Abhinav Bindra.
• Neeraj is now only the second Indian -- again after Bindra -- to simultaneously hold the Olympics and World Championships title. 

Celebs congratulate Neeraj Chopra

Celebrities hailed Chopra for winning the gold medal. Anushka Sharma penned a sweet message on social media that read: "Congratulations, this is remarkable. Such a proud moment for India." Alongside a video of Chopra receiving his gold medal, Kareena Kapoor wrote on her Instagram story, "So proud of you #WorldChampion". Ayushmann Khurrana reposted a photo of the athlete and dropped an Indian flag emoticon. 

Celebs congratulating Neeraj Chopra | (Image: Instagram)

Celebs congratulating Neeraj Chopra | (Image: Instagram)

Celebs congratulating Neeraj Chopra | (Image: Instagram)

Shahid Kapoor shared a photo of Chopra posing with a gold medal and wrote on his Instagram Story, "Congratulations World Champion. #Proud." Kangana Ranaut called Neeraj the "greatest of all time", while Anupamaa actor Rupali Ganguly wrote on Instagram that Neeraj had made every Indian proud.

Celebs congratulating Neeraj Chopra | (Image: Instagram)

Neeraj Chopra creates history at WAC 2023

Neeraj Chopra on Sunday became the first Indian to win a gold medal in the World Athletics Championships. Chopra, 25, achieved his best throw of the day in his second attempt. He had a foul to start with but then got 88.17m, 86.32m, 84.64m, 87.73m and 83.98m. Pakistan's reigning Commonwealth Games champion Arshad Nadeem took the silver with his season's best throw of 87.82m, while Jakub Vadlejch of Czech Republic got the bronze.

Chopra, who became the first Indian Olympic track and field gold medallist in the Tokyo Games in 2021, won a silver in the 2022 edition of the World Championships. 

In another first, three Indians finished in the top eight with Kishore Jena (84.77m) and DP Manu (84.14m) taking the fifth and sixth spots, respectively. Never before did three Indians finish in the top eight of an event in the World Championships. India's men's 4x400m relay team finished fifth in the final of the 2023 World Athletics Championships. It had put up a spirited performance in the heats to finish a close second behind the US team.

(With inputs from PTI)