BHUBANESWAR: Not just being the sponsor of the Indian hockey teams which performed stupendously in the Olympics, Odisha now has another reason to rejoice as gold medallist javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra had trained at Bhubaneswar's Kalinga Stadium earlier this year before the sporting extravaganza at Tokyo.
Congratulating Chopra, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik tweeted: "A golden throw! Congratulations #NeerajChopra on historic first-ever track & field #Gold medal for India in #Javelin throw at #Tokyo2020. The country is proud of you. With this, you took India to its highest ever medal tally at the #Olympics. You will inspire generations."
State Sports and Youth Affairs Department Secretary Vineel Krishna recalled Chopra's training at Kalinga Stadium.
"Golden throw! Congrtulations@Neeraj_chopra1! Indian Javelin Team briefly camped at Kalinga Stadium, Bhubaneswar, Odisha for Olympic training," he tweeted.
Chopra had said in a Twitter post on February 13, "Had a great time training at the Kalinga Stadium here in Bhubaneswar. Now looking forward to getting some competition experience under the belt."
The Olympic gold medallist had also shared a video clip of him practicing at the stadium.
He had won gold at the 2017 Asian Athletics Championships held in the stadium.
Sand artist Sudarshan Pattnaik congratulated Chopra with a sand sculpture on Puri beach on Saturday.