Olympics 2024: Neeraj Chopra Clinches Historic Silver in Javelin Throw

Heartbreak entailed but that of the easier kind to digest as Neeraj Chopra clinched a historic hard-fought Silver in the Men’s Javelin Throw event at the Paris Olympics on Thursday.

The dynamite reigning champion battled it out with Pakistan’s Arshad Nadeem, who would ultimately get the better of Neeraj with an Olympic Record throw of 92.97m, whilst the Indian would register a season-best of 89.45m for the Silver.

With his silver, Neeraj joins an elite list of Indian athletes to have won multiple medals at the Olympics in an individual sport. Shuttler PV Sindhu (one silver, one bronze), wrestler Sushil Kumar (one silver, one bronze), and shooter Manu Bhaker (two bronze) are the only Olympians to have won two Olympic medals each post-Independence.

All eyes were on Chopra when he took the field. His stunning monster throw of 89.34m in the qualification round made quite a statement but a tough challenge awaited the defending champion.

Unlike Tokyo, the competition was bound to be tougher as nine throwers crossed the automatic final round qualification mark of 84m against six in Tokyo. Out of the nine, five made it to the final round with their first throws and thus promised to make for one hell of a final.

And the final bout here in Paris started off quite interestingly as well as the likes of Keshorn Walcott set the early bar, with an 86.16m throw, whilst Pakistan’s Arshad Nadeem and Germany’s Julian