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The 'Golden Boy' Neeraj Chopra arguably became one of the biggest athletes that India ever witnessed after sending his javelin to a record-shattering distance in the Paris 2024 Olympics.
Chopra fell short of retaining his gold medal, finishing with a best throw of 89.45 meters. Despite a strong performance on his second attempt, he struggled with four consecutive foul throws, which prevented him from winning gold. Chopra became the second male athlete from post-independence India to win two Olympic medals in an individual event. He is also the only Indian athlete to bag two different medals (Gold in Tokyo 2020 and Silver in Paris 2024) at the Olympics. Chopra's first and third attempts were invalidated by red flags, and his final three attempts were fouls. Despite a strong performance in the qualification round with a throw of 89.34 meters, his 89.45-meter throw was not enough to retain his gold. Pakistan's Arshad Nadeem won gold with a throw of 92.97 meters, setting a new Olympic record and surpassing Denmark's Andreas Thorkildsen's mark from Beijing 2008. Grenada's Anderson Peters secured bronze with a throw of 88.54 meters. Chopra narrowly missed out on another title by just 1 centimetre, finishing second in the Diamond League final with a best throw of 87.86 meters at the King Baudouin Stadium in Brussels, Belgium. In the Diamond League final, Chopra started strong with a throw of 86.82-metre, placing him second behind Peters, whose winning throw came in the opening round. Germany's Julian Weber also recorded his best on his first attempt. Chopra followed up with an 83.49-meter throw and came close to overtaking Peters on his third attempt, missing by just 1 centimetre. His subsequent throws measured 82.04m, 83.30m, and 86.46m. This marked Chopra's fifth appearance in the Diamond League final. He finished seventh in 2017, fourth in 2018, and won the Diamond League crown in 2022 with a throw of 88.44m. Last year, he finished second behind Jakub Vadlejch with a throw of 83.80m. The 26-year-old accumulated 14 points across two Diamond League meets this season to qualify for the final. He finished second in both the Doha leg in May and the Lausanne event last month, placing fourth on the overall points table. Seven athletes competed in the men's javelin throw final. Chopra set a national record of 89.94m at the Stockholm leg of the Diamond League in 2022 and recorded his career's second-best throw of 89.49m at the Lausanne meet last month. His silver-winning throw in Paris measured an impressive 89.45m. Earlier in November, Neeraj Chopra's successful partnership with his long-time coach Klaus Bartonietz, which resulted in two Olympic medals, two World Championship medals, and an Asian Games gold, has come to an end as the 75-year-old German coach has decided to retire. During their time together, Chopra achieved remarkable success, including two Olympic medals (gold and silver), two World Championship medals (gold and silver), an Asian Games gold, and a Diamond League title. Recently, Chopra announced the start of an exciting new chapter in his career, partnering with javelin legend Jan Zelezny, who has come on board as his new coach. Zelezny, a three-time Olympic and World champion and the current world record holder, has long been an idol to Chopra. Zelezny, a Gold medalist at the 1992, 1996 and 2000 Olympic Games, has five of the top ten best throws of all time and broke the world record on four occasions en route to claiming the current undisputed mark of 98.48m, in Germany, in 1996. (ANI)
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