Sachin Tendulkar lauds Neeraj Chopra as Olympic Champion gets nominated for Laureus World Sports Awards

Batting great, Sachin Tendulkar has lauded Olympic gold medalist Neeraj Chopra for scripting history by becoming only the third Indian to get nominated in the 2022 Laureus ‘World Breakthrough of the Year’ award on Thursday (February 3). Neeraj won India’s first-ever gold medal in Athletics in the Tokyo Olympics last year in the Men’s Javelin throw event and has bagged plenty of awards already.

The other two Indians to have featured in the nominations for the award are women’s wrestler Vinesh Phogat in 2019 and Sachin himself won the Sporting Moment 2000-20 award two years back. The 24-year-old Neeraj was recently conferred with the Padma Shri award by the Indian Government. He also received the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna as well.

Daniil Medvedev (Russia) Tennis, Pedri (Spain) Football, Emma Raducanu (UK) Tennis, Yulimar Rojas (Venezuela) Athletics, Ariarne Titmus (Australia) Swimming are the other five athletes to be nominated in the star-studded list alongside Neeraj.

Sachin Tendulkar’s special note for Neeraj Chopra

Sachin took it to Twitter to greet the youngster Chopra for his massive success so far and wished him more success in the coming years. The Master Blaster was presented with the Sporting Moment award for the 2011 World Cup India’s triumph where Sachin was carried on shoulder by his teammates. It was the last World Cup game for Sachin, who took part in six World Cups in his international career, and he holds the record for the most number of runs scored in the ICC’s prestigious event as well.

“My heartiest congratulations to you @Neeraj_chopra1 for your continued success representing India on the world stage. #Laureus22 nomination is another great achievement – with many more to come!,” Sachin Tweeted

It has to be noted that, Tendulkar has been portrayed as one of the all-time greats of the game and the 48-year-old has unbelievable numbers which are going to be very difficult to break. He came into the international scene at the age of 16, and played 200 Tests for the nation which is unlikely to be broken for a considerable period of time. He managed above 34,000 international runs in more than two decades for India and is popularly called the ‘god of cricket’.