Neeraj Chopra congratulates race walker Amit Khatri
Tokyo Olympic javelin throw gold medalist Neeraj Chopra on Saturday advised Amit Khatri, who won silver in the men’s 10,000m race at the World Athletics U20 Championships in Nairobi, to come up with a similar performance for the country.
Khatri won the silver medal with a time of 42:17.94. He was leading a good portion of the race walk before being overtaken by Kenya’s Heristone Vanyoni in the final two laps.
Chopra, who became the first Indian to win a gold medal in athletics and the second person in the country to win an individual gold medal at the Olympics two weeks ago, told 19-year-old Amit Khatri, “Keep looking forward to him doing well for the country” Let’s continue to give similar good performances).
In his tweet, he said, “Congratulations Amit bhai for your wonderful performance!”
This is also India’s second medal in the current competition. Earlier on Wednesday, the Indian quartet of Bharat Sridhar, Priya H Mohan, Sumi and Kapil won the bronze medal in the 4x400m mixed relay final with a season-best time of 3:20.60.
In January this year, Khatri had set a new national record by claiming the men’s 10000m race walk title at the Junior Federation Cup in Bhopal.
The young walker from Rohtak, Haryana, finished the race in 40:40.97 seconds, improving Akshdeep Singh’s existing national record of 40:37.78 and nearly half a minute ahead of Paramdeep Mor of the state.
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