Neeraj Chopra, Paris Olympics 2024: Star Indian javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra, who won gold in the Tokyo Olympics, has also created history in the Paris Olympics 2024. He has also made an amazing record by winning silver in Paris.
Apart from Tokyo Olympics silver medalist Yakub Wallach of Czech Republic, Julian Weber of Germany and former world champion Anderson Peters of Grenada, Neeraj faced a tough challenge from Arshad Nadeem of Pakistan.
Neeraj’s season best throw, Arshad broke Olympic record
But Neeraj has won the silver medal by throwing the javelin at a distance of 89.45 meters. This is Neeraj’s best throw of this season. Earlier, Neeraj had thrown the javelin 89.34 meters in the qualification round of the same Paris Olympics.
Whereas Arshad has won gold by throwing the javelin a record distance of 92.97 meters. This is a new Olympic record. Arshad has broken the record of Andreas THORKILDSEN of Norway. Andreas made this record on August 23, 2008 in the Beijing Olympics by throwing the javelin 90.57 meters.
Neeraj created history, the first Indian to do so
With this medal, 26 year old Neeraj Chopra has made a historical record in his name. He has become the first Indian to win gold and silver in individual events of two consecutive Olympics. Earlier, Abhinav Bindra had won gold for India in individual event (shooting) in Beijing 2008. But he could not win any medal after this.
If Neeraj had won the gold, he could have become the 5th player in the world and the first from India to retain the title in the history of the Olympics. Along with this, he could also become the first Indian to win 2 gold medals in an individual event of the Olympics. But he missed this record.
Apart from this, before this only wrestler Sushil Kumar has been able to win any two medals in the Olympics. After him, Neeraj is the second Indian who has won any two medals in the Olympics. Although Sushil could not win gold. He won bronze medal in Beijing 2008 and then silver medal in London 2012.
These 4 giants have achieved this feat
So far, Eric Lemming (Sweden 1908 and 1912), Jonny Myra (Finland 1920 and 1924), Neeraj’s idol Jan Zelenji (Czech Republic 1992 and 1996) and Andreas Tee (Norway 2004 and 2008) have appeared in the Olympics in the men’s javelin throw event. Could retain title in javelin throw event.
Before the Olympics this year, Chopra participated in only three events, but his other competitors also did not perform well. Chopra threw 88.36 meters in the Doha Diamond League in May, while due to discomfort in the adductor he did not participate in the Ostrava Golden Spike on May 28 as a precaution.
Neeraj did wonders after recovering from injury
He returned with a gold at the Paavo Nurmi Games in Finland in June with a throw of 85.97 metres. After this, he did not participate in the Paris Diamond League on 7 July. His coach dismissed concerns about fitness and said that now there is no problem with his adductor and he is practicing hard.