He strutted in, sniffing a gold medal. And he took what he wanted with elan. Neeraj Chopra was cruelly denied his strong first attempt by an inexplicable 'technical glitch', but that blunder was not big enough to stop Neeraj from rightfully finishing in first place at the Hangzhou Asian Games men's javelin throw final. The Olympic and world champion defended his Jakarta 2018 Asiad gold with ease, coming up with a throw of 88.88m in his fourth attempt. The throw also happened to be Neeraj's season best. (Medal Tally | Schedule | Streaming | Full Coverage | Sports News)
Neeraj's first throw seemed to be above 85m — his trademark roar indicated it was very likely above that — but due to an unclear glitch with the measuring system, it could not be recorded and the Games officials asked Neeraj to retake it. Neeraj waited patiently and accepted the decision, though it is hard to tell whether and to what degree this highly unusual occurence had a bearing on Neeraj's re-throw. He threw 82.38m this time.
Kishore Kumar Jena threw a distance of 81.26m in his first attempt, and with his second throw, Kishore too had to bear the brunt of an official error as his legal throw was initially red-flagged. Kishore protested, so did Neeraj from the sidelines, and eventually the decision was reversed to a white flag and the throw recorded as 79.76m.
Kishore, however, did not let that professional abberation deter him. He came up with a new personal best throw of 86.77m — a full two metres beyond his previous best — with his third attempt to momentarily overtake Neeraj. The throw was not just his best, it was also big enough to book his Paris Olympics berth, with the qualification mark being 85.5m. What's more, Kishore came up with an even bigger fourth throw, registering 87.54m to rewrite his personal best within minutes.
He got a hug from Neeraj, and his maiden Asiad silver medal to boot, as India registered a historic one-two finish in the event.
