Neeraj Chopra wins silver as Arshad Nadeem grabs men's javelin gold at Paris Olympics

Pakistan’s Arshad Nadeem stunned India’s Neeraj Chopra to win gold in men’s javelin at the Paris Olympics on Thursday, breaking the Olympic record along the way.

Nadeem ended Chopra’s reign as Olympic champion with a stunning 92.97m throw in his second attempt in the men’s javelin final. He would breach the 90-metre mark in his final attempt as well, the throw measuring 91.79m.

Not only did Nadeem break the record previously set by Norway’s Andreas Thorkildsen (90.57m) in the 2008 Beijing Olympics, he also became the first-ever Pakistani athlete to win an individual gold medal in the Olympics.

Chopra had breezed into the men’s javelin final with just one attempt measuring 89.34m. Though the 26-year-old from Haryana fouled five times in six attempts, he managed to improve upon his qualifying throw as his second attempt measured 89.45m.

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Neeraj Chopra secures his second Olympic medal! 🥈🇮🇳 pic.twitter.com/qUq4NVyQxx

— The Olympic Games (@Olympics) August 8, 2024

Not only was it Chopra’s season best throw, it was also enough for him to secure a silver — his second on the trot after a historic gold in Tokyo three years ago.

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Chopra became only the third Indian and the first in track and field to win back-to-back individual Olympic medals.

Only wrestler Sushil Kumar (2008 and 2012) and shuttler PV Sindhu (2016 and 2021) have won back-to-back Olympic medals.

Thorkildsen, whose Olympic record set in Beijing 2008 stood for 16 years, was watching the proceedings from the stands, along with three-time Olympic champion and world record (98.48m) holder Jan Zelezny of Czech Republic.

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 best 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 tonight, Chopra had never lost to Nadeem in their 10 earlier meetings.

Nadeem’s monster throw — sixth longest in history — also came in his second attempt which was like a bolt from the blue that stunned the Stade de France.

With this performance, the 27-year-old also extracted revenge of his loss to Chopra in the 2023 Budapest World Championships.

It was not the first 90m effort from Nadeem, having 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.

Chopra did not take part in the 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games due to an injury.

Nadeem was to compete with Chopra in the Hangzhou Asian Games in October last year but pulled out at the last minute due to an injury.

He was beaten by Chopra in the 2018 Asian Games and 2018 Commonwealth Games.

Nadeem had come into the Olympics with just one competition under his belt — an 84.21m throw at the Paris Diamond League last month.

Chopra now has a gold and a silver at the Olympics as well as at the World Championships, finishing runner-up in the 2022 Worlds in Eugene before winning the prestigious event in Budapest the following year.

Chopra, incidentally, had secured a one-two finish with Nadeem in Budapest last year, and the two would pull off an encore in the French capital on Thursday, albeit with their positions reversed.

_With PTI inputs
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