Neeraj Chopra: India's only gold medalist at Tokyo Olympics is also a Subedar in Indian Army; Rajnath Singh tweets pic in uniform

Twenty three-year-old Chopra, who hails from Khandra village near Hariyana's Panipat, is a Subedar with 4 Rajputana Rifles in the Indian Army.

He is a graduate of DAV College in Chandigarh.

"The golden victory of Subedar Neeraj Chopra at the Olympics brings laurels for the Indian Army. He performed like a true soldier at the Olympics. It is indeed a historic and proud moment for the entire country including the Indian Armed Forces! Many congratulations to him," Defence Minister Rajnath Singh tweeted.

The star athlete who has been a consistent performer in his career so far  threw a best of 87.58m in the finals to end India's 100-year wait for a track and field medal in the Olympics.

Chopra won the coveted gold medal for India in the Games with his fourth best throw of the year while Johannes Vetter of Germany, who has his best throw at 97.76m, struggled and failed to finish in the last eight.

Neeraj also became only the second individual Indian athlete after Abhinav Bindra to win an Olympic medal. Bindra had won the gold in shooting in 2008 London Olympics.

He is the son of a farmer from Haryana.

News agency ANI reported that the state government has announced it would honour the athlete with Rs 6 crore, & a class I category job as per the state's policy. A Centre of Excellence for athletes will be built in Panchkula, where Neeraj will be the head if he wants. Further, he will be given a plot with 50 per cent concession, like other players.

He is also the first Indian athlete to have won gold in javelin throw in Commonwealth games and Asian Games. He had clinched gold medals at the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, Australia, and the 2018 Asian Games in Indonesia.

He had won a junior world title in athletics when he claimed gold in javelin throw at the 2016 World Junior Championships in Poland.