Neeraj Chopra had to be satisfied with a silver medal in his second Olympic Games. His throw of 89.45 metres was a great effort by itself, no doubt, but was far from the gold medal throw—92.97 metres by Pakistan’s Arshad Nadeem. Anderson Peters of Grenada won the bronze with a throw of 88.54 metres.

Though Neeraj could not defend his Tokyo Olympics gold, nothing must be taken away from what was, by all means, a very good effort. It must be said that Neeraj himself had predicted before the Games that it would be tough to defend his gold medal.

With this throw, Nadeem created an Olympic record and became the first Pakistani to win a gold medal in an individual event in Olympic Games as well. Not just once, Nadeem crossed the 90-metre barrier twice—the second time with his last throw—something none of the other competitors could come near to achieving.

This is also the first time in the history of the Olympic Games that a Pakistani and an Indian, as well as two Asians, have won the gold and silver in an individual event.

Neeraj’s personal best is 89.94 metres, logged at the Stockholm Diamond League in 2022, and so he is yet to cross the 90-metre barrier, unlike some of his competitors on the night had already done in other competitions. Arshad’s personal best is 90.18 metres, which he threw at the 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games to win the gold.