Harpal Singh Bedi / New Delhi
Commonwealth Games champion javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra will be the flag bearer of the Indian contingent at the 18th Asian Games opening ceremony to be held in Jakarta on 18th August.
His name as flag bearer was announced by the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) president Narinder Batra at a send off ceremony for the Indian contingent here today.
The Games are slated to be held in Jakarta and Palembang (Indonesia) from August 18 to September 2.
Neeraj recently won a gold in the Savo Games with an impressive performance, beating his Chinese Taipei rival Chao-Tsun Cheng.
The 20-year old thrower has displayed consistent performance this season so far. He also clinched a gold with a throw of 85.17 m, gold medal at Sotteville Athletics meet in France.
Andrian Mardare (81.48m) and Edis Matusevicius (79.31m) were far behind the Indian for a silver and a bronze respectively.
Expert feel that if Neeraj maintains his form he will easily win a gold in Jakarta . He first came into prominence by winning a gold medal in the 2016 World Junior Championship with a record throw of 86.48m. It was India’s first gold medal in a Junior Championship event. After that there has been no looking back for this promising thrower
In the last Asian Games held in Incheon South Korea, in which Hockey captain Sardar Singh was the flag bearer,India won a total of 57 medals which included 11 gold, 9 silver and 37 bronze.
The opening and closing ceremonies of the games will be held at GBK main stadium in Jakarta
India will sent a 540-plus contingent for the prestigious games. This will be India’s 18th appearance at the Asian Games after participating since the beginning of the tournament