India’s star track and field athlete Neeraj Chopra recorded his season-best throw of 89.45m to win silver in the men’s javelin event at the Paris Olympics after Pakistan’s Arshad Nadeem shattered the all-time Olympic record of 90.57m with a throw of 92.97m to clinch the gold medal.
Neeraj Chopra Wins Silver in Paris
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- India’s star track and field athlete Neeraj Chopra recorded his season-best throw of 89.45m to win silver in the men’s javelin event at the Paris Olympics after Pakistan’s Arshad Nadeem shattered the all-time Olympic record of 90.57m with a throw of 92.97m to clinch the gold medal.
Neeraj Chopra
- Neeraj Chopra’s silver at the Paris Olympics immortalises his legacy in the track and field category and in javelin, in particular.
- He became the first Indian track and field athlete to claim two medals after independence.
- However, the silver in Paris didn’t come easily for Neeraj as he battled adductor niggle all the way leading into his run at the Summer Games in 2024.
- After the conclusion of events on Day 13, Pakistan were ranked 53rd in the standings, courtesy of their sole gold medal in the men’s javelin throw final.
- India, on the other hand, was placed 64th, with one silver and four bronze.
- The common method of determining the success of countries at the Olympic Games is a ranking order based on the number of gold medals won. Even if a nation has 10 silver or bronze medals, it would be ranked lower than a solitary gold medal.
- The tally of silver and bronze medals only comes into effect when there’s a tie between two nations on the number of gold medals won.
- Arshad clinched his country’s first gold medal in four decades while also setting a new Olympic record with his stunning throw.
- Pakistan had never won an individual Olympic gold medal until the Paris Games where Arshad defeated India’s javelin throw hero Neeraj Chopra.
- The South Asian nation has a total of three gold medals to its name in Olympic history, and all three of them came in field hockey – in 1960, 1968, and 1984.
- In Pakistan’s history, only two athletes have won individual Olympic medals of any color. They both were bronze – in wrestling in 1960 and boxing in 1988. Pakistan last won an Olympic medal at the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona when the field hockey clinched bronze.