Paris Olympics 2024: Neeraj Chopra Silver Medal Sums Up India Tale Of Woes At These Games
The Paris Olympics 2024 has been a story of near misses for India, day after day. Shooters, archers and shuttlers have pile up 4th place finishes and it was always going to be an enormous task for Neeraj Chopra to defend his men’s javelin crown here.
Neeraj Chopra took his game up a notch, coming up with a season best of 89.45m – even better than his monstrous throw on the first attempt in the men’s javelin qualifier a couple of days back – but even that was not enough to bring home a gold medal again. Pakistan’s Arshad Nadeem came up with an ‘out of this world’ freak effort of 92.97m throw – a new Olympic record to snatch away the crown from India’s hero.
The rivalry and the friendship between Neeraj Chopra and Arshad Nadeem has been going on for a long time. But this is the first time in his career that Arshad Nadeem has finished ahead of Neeraj Chopra in an international competition. The Pakistani javelin thrower had won the 2022 Commonwealth Games title with another 90m-plus throw but Neeraj Chopra had missed out on that tournament due to injury.
Neeraj has never propelled the javelin beyond the 90m mark in his career till date. The one burning question on everyone’s mind since he won the Tokyo Olympics 2021 gold was when will be Indian breach the 90m barrier. It was not to be on this night in Paris as well!
Neeraj Chopra has thrown his season best of 89.45m and almost 2 metres more than his Tokyo Gold. But Arshad Nadeem has just thrown something else. It’s not even 90,91 or 92 it’s a 92.97! Not sure if that can be breached tonight. Let’s see.
— Trendulkar (@Trendulkar) August 8, 2024
Nadeem was also the 2023 World Championship silver medallist, ending runners-up Neeraj Chopra but in Paris he reigned supreme. Just like Neeraj in Tokyo, Arshad Nadeem ensured that he will end up as the first-ever track-and-field athlete from his country to win a gold medal at the Olympics.
Neeraj threw every ounce of strength in his body in an effort to put up a fight against the inevitable Olympic champion Arshad Nadeem. One could see the determination in his eye, the desire to achieve the impossible but the ground seemed to slip away from under him – especially on the 5th throw.
Ironically, Neeraj only managed one legal throw out of the first five and it was enough to seal a silver medal for him. On any other night, it may well have been enough to secure the men’s javelin crown.
That doesn’t take anything away from Neeraj though as he still becomes one of the most decorated Olympians from India ever. No other individual athlete has won a gold and a silver medal from the Olympics. Shuttler PV Sindhu (one silver, one bronze), wrestler Sushil Kumar (one silver, one bronze) and shooter Manu Bhaker (two bronze) are the only double Olympic medallists apart from Neeraj Chopra.
But on the top of the charts, it is definitely Neeraj Chopra with a gold and a silver medal to his name. Eric Lemming (Sweden; 1908 and 1912), Jonni Myyra (Finland; 1920 and 1924), Jan Zelezny (Czech Republic; 1992, 1996 and 2000) and Andreas Thorkildsen (Norway; 2004 and 2008) are the only ones who have successfully defended their men’s javelin titles.
Neeraj is only 26 years of age. If he can keep his fitness levels up and steer clear of injuries, the Indian star will definitely fancy his chances in 4 years time come Los Angeles Olympics 2028.