Jaipur (Rajasthan) [India], August 9 : After Neeraj Chopra won the silver medal at the ongoing Paris Olympics, Rajasthan Sports Minister Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore said that the Indian javelin thrower is a "legendary athlete".
Chopra, 26, 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.
Speaking to ANI, Rajyavardhan Singh congratulated Neeraj and said that it was a great achievement for him to win two Olympic medals. The Rajasthan Sports Minister hailed the 26-year-old athlete for maintaining his form for four years.
"I want to congratulate Neeraj Chopra, it is a great achievement, in 2 Olympics he won gold and silver medals, he maintained his form for 4 years...he even sustained injuries...when he won the medal today, he humbled received it...he is a legendary athlete...," Rajyavardhan said.
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.
Following the failure to defend his gold medal, Neeraj expressed dissatisfaction with his performance and revealed that the last two to three years were not good for him in terms of fitness.
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.
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