Paris (France):India's 'golden boy' Neeraj Chopra has to settle on silver medal in men's javelin throw event after Pakistan's Arshad Nadeem created a new Olympics record at the ongoing Paris Games here on Thursday. With his silver, Chopra becomes first Indian track-and-field athlete to win two Olympic medals.
Neeraj recorded his season's best throw of 89.45m but Nadeem destroyed his hopes of winning back-to-back gold medals after registering an Olympic record throw of 92.97m. In his sixth and final attempt, he recorded a throw of 91.79, which became his second best throw of the career.
Tokyo Olympics 2020 gold medalist Neeraj Chopra did'nt have a good start as he made a foul throw in his first attempt. Neeraj looked under pressure right after Arshad's record throw and failed to manage the burden of the expectations, managing to register only one legal attempt. Out of the six attempts, five were fouls and three of which were unforced errors.
Neeraj looked very disappointed game despite registering his second best throw of 89.45m that eventually helped him to win a silver medal. It was also his best-ever throw in the Olympic Games as he went past 89.34m, which helped him seal the top spot in the qualification round on Tuesday.
The 26-year-old became the first Indian to clinch an Olympic Gold medal in a track and field event when he won the men's javelin event in 2020 Tokyo Games with a best effort of 87.58m. With this silver, he also became the fifth Indian after Norman Pritchard, Sushil Kumar, PV Sindhu and Manu Bhaker to win more than one individual Olympic medals.He is the only track and field from India to win two medals at Olympics.