Neeraj, who came into the final as the favourite with a brilliant effort of 89.34 metres in the qualifying round, hurled the spear to 89.45, his second-best ever effort and a clear improvement on the 87.58 that bagged him the gold medal in Tokyo, to finish behind Arshad, who won the gold medal with an Olympic record-shattering 92.97m attempt.
Notably, Arshad crossed the 90m mark twice to set a massive Olympic record, held by Andreas Thorkildsen of Norway (90.57m in Beijing 2008), to win Pakistan's first Olympic medal since Barcelona 1992 and ended the night with another gigantic 91.79m throw on his final attempt.
Moreover, Arshad's medal was the first individual Olympic gold won by a Pakistani athlete at the Olympics.
"Arshad performed well and I would like to congratulate him. I've been competing with him since 2016, and this is the first time he has won while competing together," said Neeraj after the final.
Neeraj slipped towards the end of his throw on his initial attempt and it was ruled out as invalid. However, he brought himself back into the game with a season's best of 89.45m on his second attempt, before he stepped out and decided not to log the third throw, which barely crossed the 80m mark.
"Despite the injury, I am pushing myself hard. The throw was good, but I still have a lot left in me, and I need to stay fit to achieve it," said the Tokyo Olympics gold medallist.
The top five throws in the men's javelin throw final have all been better than the 87.58m that won Neeraj the gold at Tokyo, showcasing how intense the level of competition has been at the Stade de France on Thursday night.
"I haven't achieved a 90-meter throw yet, but during the second attempt, I felt that today might be the day. I have faith in myself, and I know I'll reach that milestone someday. Holding your flag and winning a medal for your country is an incredible feeling," said Neeraj.
The reigning world and Asian Games champion acknowledged that frequent injuries before Paris 2024 hindered his title defense preparations. "The last two or three years were not so good for me. I’m always injured. In training, I’m not doing a lot of throws because of my groin (injury) I really tried hard, but I have to work on my injury (staying injury-free) and technique," he concluded.
Meanwhile, Neeraj become the second Indian men's athlete and third overall to win back-to-back medals in the Olympics after wrestler Sushil Kumar, who won a bronze and silver in the 2008 and 2012 Games. Shuttler PV Sindhu is the other Indian to win consecutive medals - silver in Rio and bronze in Tokyo -- at the Games.
--IANS
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