Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated Neeraj Chopra on Friday following the Indian javelin thrower’s silver medal win at the Paris 2024 Olympics. Modi praised Chopra for his performance and inquired about his recent injuries.
During the call, PM Modi commended Chopra for making the country proud, saying, “You made the country proud again. Even late at night at 1 AM, people were watching you in action, looking at you with hope.” Modi also lauded Chopra’s consistent performances despite his recent fitness challenges.
Chopra, who fell short of retaining his gold medal, expressed disappointment over not being able to push himself fully due to injuries. Chopra noted that the past two to three years had been difficult due to fitness issues, affecting his performance. “It was a good throw but I am not that happy with my performance today,” Chopra said. “My technique and runway were not that good. I only managed one good throw; the rest were fouls.”
Chopra made history on Thursday by becoming the first Indian track-and-field athlete to win two consecutive Olympic medals. He secured the silver medal with a best throw of 89.45 meters, falling short of the gold won by Pakistan’s Arshad Nadeem, who set a new Olympic record with a throw of 92.97 meters. Grenada's Anderson Peters took the bronze with a throw of 88.54 meters.
Speaking after the event as quoted by Olympics.com, Neeraj said, "It was a good throw but I am not that happy with my performance today. My technique and runway was not that good. (I managed) only one throw, the rest I fouled."
"(For my) second throw I believed in myself to think I can also throw that far. But in javelin, if your run is not so good, you cannot throw very far," added Neeraj
The 26-year-old athlete said that injuries leading upto his title defence in Paris made some difference and he will have to work on being injury-free and on his technique.
"The last two or three years were not so good for me. I am always injured. I really tried hard, but I have to work on my injury (staying injury-free) and technique," he added.
Earlier in the Games, Chopra had achieved a throw of 89.34 meters in the Group B qualification round, his second-best all-time throw.