“Neeraj Chopra’s positivity and motivation helps athletes like me a lot” – Vikrant Malik, Gold medal  winner in Javelin Throw

Hails from Haryana, Vikrant Malik is a student of KIIT University, Bhubaneswar, Odisha, had clinched the gold in the last edition of KIUG in Bangaluru as well.

Vikram Malik.

Khel Today Bureau 

Lucknow: Vikrant Malik of KIIT University who hails from Haryana clinched gold medal in the men’s Javelin event of the Khelo India University Games Uttar Pradesh 2022 on Tuesday at the Guru Govind Singh college grounds, Lucknow. Vikrant had clinched the gold in the last edition of KIUG in Bangaluru as well.

Despite currently nursing an ankle injury and competing at the event today wearing different shoes in both feet, he threw a best throw of 80.00 m.

“I really prepared well for this and wanted to hit around the 85 mark but because of my ankle injury which has been troubling me for the past one month, it didn’t go as planned. I experienced an intense pain today and will go get my injury checked with the physio as we have important Asian Games and World University trials coming up,” he said.

Vikrant Malik was the fourth Indian last year to breach 80 m benchmark (after Rohit Yadav, DP Manu, and Yashvir Singh) and the 10th overall in a list that is headed by Olympic champion Neeraj Chopra. Vikrant’s village is very close to Neeraj Chopra’s village in Panipat, Haryana as well.

“Neeraj Chopra inspires not just me but the entire country as he won a gold at the Olympics for India. I too want to win medals for India and make my country proud. I keep talking to Neeraj and he advises us whenever we need his advices and continuously motivates us. He is always positive about everything which is very inspiring for us.”