He could not bring home the gold again, but not for much fault of his. Neeraj Chopra's steadfast consistency was eclipsed by a superhuman throw from Arshad Nadeem, as the India vs Pakistan rivalry surprisingly sprung to the fore of the men's javelin final of the Paris Olympic Games 2024 on Thursday (August 8). (Highlights | Medal Table | Schedule & Results)
It was a Games-record throw of 92.97m throw that robbed Neeraj of the gold, and ended Pakistan's long-standing Olympic medal drought. Exactly 32 years ago to the day, Pakistan had bagged their last Olympic medal when their hockey team clinched a bronze with a 4-3 victory over the Netherlands in Barcelona in 1992.
And thus, Chopra's bid to defend his Olympic title was unsuccessful. He finished second with a season-best effort of 89.45m. But the 26-year-old world champion still remains India's best track-and-field athlete, and the only one to have bagged medals at back-to-back Olympic editions.
Neeraj becomes the fourth Indian overall to clinch multiple medals at the Summer Games, after Sushil Kumar, PV Sindhu and Manu Bhaker.
Grenada's Anderson Peters grabbed the last podium place with an effort of 88.54m, while Czech Republic's Yakub Vadlejch finished fourth (88.50m) and was followed by Kenya's Julius Yego (SB 87.72).
As many as seven athletes went beyond the 86m mark as the competitive field saw three season's bests and an Olympic record.
Keshorn Walcot (86.16) from Trinidad and Tobago also celebrated his season's best show to finish seventh in the 12-man field.
Before Thursday, Chopra had never lost to Nadeem in their 10 earlier meetings.
Nadeem's humongous throw -- the sixth longest of all time -- also came in his second attempt which was like a bolt from the blue that stunned the Stade de France.
It was not the first 90m effort from Nadeem, who had thrown 90.18m to win gold in the 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games.
He is the second Asian to have thrown beyond 90m, the other being Chao-Tsun Cheng (91.36m in 2017) of Chinese Taipei.
(With PTI inputs)
