Neeraj Chopra nominated for Laureus World Breakthrough of the Year Award

Tokyo Olympics gold medallist Neeraj Chopra has been selected as one of the six nominees for the 2022 Laureus World Breakthrough of the Year AwardA panel of more than 1300 of the leading sports journalists and broadcasters in the world have selected the nominees in each of seven categories for this years Laureus World Sports Awards The Winners will be revealed in April following a vote by the Laureus World Sports Academy the worlds ultimate sports jury made up of 71 of the greatest sporting legends of all timeNeeraj who won his gold medal in the mens javelin in Tokyo is one of only two Indians to have won individual Olympic gold the other being Abhinav Bindra in air rifle in 2008 At the age of 23 he made his Olympic debut in Tokyo and won the gold medal with a throw of 8758 metres in his second attempt Im delighted to be nominated for this Laureus Award and its a great honour for me to be recognised in the wider sporting world for what I achieved in Tokyo From being a kid in a small village in rural India who only took up sport to get fit to standing on top of an Olympic podium its been quite an eventful journey so far Neeraj said in a statement I feel privileged to be able to represent my country and win India medals at the global stage and now to have this recognition from Laureus and be considered alongside such exceptional athletes is a really special feeling he addedA special feeling to be nominated along with some exceptional athletes for the Laureus World Breakthrough of the Year award Congratulations to DaniilMedwed pedri EmmaRaducanu TeamRojas45 and Ariarne Titmus on their nominations Laureus22 pictwittercom16pUMmvQBEmdash Neeraj Chopra Neeraj_chopra1 February 2 2022Neeraj is only the third Indian athlete to be nominated for a Laureus Award after wrestler Vinesh Phogat in 2019 and cricket maestro Sachin Tendulkar who won the Laureus Sporting Moment Award 20002020 which marked the emotional moment during the 2011 ICC World Cup when his team carried him on their shoulders in a lap of honour after Indias win In 2011 while Tendulkar was celebrating that victory Neeraj had just started attending a gym under pressure from his family to improve his fitness While there he saw athletes practising and he developed an interest in the javelin At the 2016 World Under20 Championships he won the gold medal and his career was off and runningAlso nominated with Neeraj for the Breakthrough Award are Britains Emma Raducanu who became a global tennis sensation when she won the US Open at the age of 18 Russias Daniil Medvedev who won the mens title at Flushing Meadows FC Barcelonas football prodigy Pedri aged 19 voted best young player at the Ballon dOr Yulimar Rojas who broke the 26yearold triple jump world record and swimmer Ariarne Titmus aged 20 who twice beat champion Katie Ledecky at 200 and 400m in TokyoThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever