Paris Olympics 2024: Neeraj Chopra cruises into javelin final

Aug 06, 2024, 16:03 IST

Paris Olympics 2024: Defending champion and India's biggest hope for a gold medal Neeraj Chopra fired a monstrous throw of 89.34m in the javelin throw event at the Paris Olympics on Tuesday.

This massive throw has catapulted India’s golden boy into the men’s javelin event. This is considered Neeraj’s personal best performance. Prior to this, Neeraj had recorded the season’s best of 88.36m at the Doha Diamond League in May.

India’s other player, Kishore Jena from Group A failed to throw beyond the 87m mark. He was eliminated from the race to the final after he achieved a throw of only 80.73m.

Neeraj made history for India by becoming the first Indian athlete to win a gold medal in the Olympics. He has emerged as champion in the World Championship, Asian Games and the Diamond League finals bagging the gold in javelin throw in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

Pakistan’s athlete Arshad Nadeem also entered the final. He achieved a massive throw of 86.59m to qualify the standard distance in his first attempt. Notably, he had breached the 90m mark in the Commonwealth Games in 2022.