Neeraj Chopra Men's Javelin Throw Final LIVE Updates, Paris Olympics 2024: Pakistan's Arshad Nadeem Breaks Olympic Record With 92.97m Throw, Neeraj 2nd

Neeraj Chopra Javelin Throw Live Updates Paris Olympics 2024: Neeraj Chopra committed a foul on his first throw and threw a distance of 89.45m in his second attempt to move into second. Pakistan’s Arshad Nadeem broke the Olympic record with a 92.97m effort. The golden boy of Indian athletics is aiming to become just the fifth man in the history of the Olympics to defend his javelin throw gold. Having broken new grounds with his history-making throw of 87.58m at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 that won him the gold, Neeraj has continued to shine at the international events winning the gold at the world athletics championship followed by the Asiad gold.

 

Eric Lemming (Sweden; 1908 and 1912), Jonni Myyra (Finland; 1920 and 1924), Jan Zelezny (Czech Republic; 1992, 1996 and 2000) and Andreas Thorkildsen (Norway; 2004 and 2008) have defended the men’s javelin gold medals in the Olympics.

Will Neeraj be the fifth?

How Neeraj Fared in the Qualification Round?

The 26-year-old was in a hurry. He didn’t waste a second and produced a monster throw of 89.34m with his first attempt itself. It was 5.34m beyond the qualification mark of 84.00m.

This quality of the field this time around is better than Tokyo with nine throwers crossing the automatic final round qualification mark of 84m in Paris as against six in Tokyo. Out of the nine, five made it to the final round with their first throws and thus will have a lot in their tanks for the medal round.

Neeraj knows that the final will be a different ballgame.

“In the final, everyone has a different mindset and different situation. It will be a good competition. Whoever qualifies automatically is the best in preparation,” Neeraj said after his qualification.

Only three Indians have won multiple medals at the Olympics including wrestler Sushil Kumar (silver, bronze), shuttler PV Sindhu (silver, bronze) and Manu Bhaker (two bronze medals).

Two-time world champion Anderson Peters (personal best 93.07m) of Grenada is peaking at the right time while Pakistan’s Arshad Nadeem is also hitting the meaning the final could be a close affair.