[WATCH] Neeraj Chopra's silver winning throw of 89.45m at Paris Olympics 2024
India’s ‘Golden Boy’ Neeraj Chopra secured a silver medal in the men’s javelin throw at the Paris Olympics 2024 on Thursday. Chopra threw a distance of 89.45 meters in his second attempt and went on to finish in second place.
Arshad Nadeem of Pakistan won the gold medal with an Olympic record throw of 92.97 meters. Meanwhile, Grenada’s Anderson Peters clinched the bronze medal with a throw of 88.54 meters.
Watch Neeraj Chopra’s silver medal-winning throw below:
Arshad Nadeem’s heroics outshine Neeraj Chopra at the Paris Olympics 2024 javelin throw finals
Neeraj Chopra entered the javelin throw finals as a top gold medal contender but was surpassed by his arch-rival and friend Arshad Nadeem of Pakistan. After a foul throw in the first attempt, Nadeem came back in style to throw his personal best and season best of 92.97 meters, breaking the 16-year-old Olympic record of 90.57 meters previously held by Andreas Thorkildsen of Norway at the Beijing 2008 Olympics.
The Indian athlete tried his best to go ahead of Arshad Nadeem but failed to secure any valid throw other than his second attempt, which earned him the silver medal.
Notably, Arshad, who had already secured the gold before his final throw, achieved a distance of 91.79 meters to end the proceedings on a high note. Arshad, thus, became a part of history by securing Pakistan’s first-ever gold medal in track and field events.
With this silver medal, Neeraj became the second Indian athlete after Norman Pritchard (British India) to win multiple medals in track and field at the Olympics. He won a gold at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics to become India’s first-ever track and field athlete to secure a gold.
This is India’s fifth medal and the only non-bronze medal at the Paris Olympics 2024. Neeraj's medal ceremony will take place at 10:30 PM IST on August 9.