Asian Games: Neeraj Chopra, as expected, won gold medal in the Men’s Javelin Throw at the Asian Games. However his road to the podium finish had one major controversy. The India’s first throw, which went over 85m was not recorded by the organisers due to a technical fault. After initial protest, Neeraj agreed to re-throw his first attempt and couldn’t match the earlier distance.
Also Read: Neeraj Chopra’s first throw not recorded due to technical failure, still wins gold comfortably
‘It was getting unfair for other athletes to wait’
While the Chinese officials were slammed for their goof-up, Neeraj Chopra has revealed the reason for agreeing to re-throw his first attempt. “I protested first. But the other athletes were waiting for me to throw again. It was breezy and other athletes were cooling down. It was getting unfair on them. So they offered me a re-throw and I accepted,” said Neeraj as quoted by the Indian Express.
Neeraj is someone who has the reputation of recording big throws in his very first attempt. He said that he was puzzled that his initial throw was not measured. “It’s surprising, they didn’t measure it. I am still puzzled, apparently the second athlete threw before they could even measure my throw and they lost the mark then.”
Also Read: ‘Knew they would do some mischief’, Anju Bobby George on biased Chinese officials
Clinching the Asian Games gold with a season best throw
Neeraj was leading with a 84.49m throw after four attempts. He found it hard to go past his first throw which was unrecorded. Soon, he saw his own contryman Kishore Jena surpass him with a massive 86.77m throw.
Neeraj was up for the challenge. He gave it his all and registered his season best throw of 88.88m to get back to the top spot. It was enough for the 25-year old as he won the gold medal.
“Today I thought I would cross the 90m mark. But then the thing with the first throw happened. But today I’m very happy for Jena. He’s also qualified for the Olympics. It became very entertaining. Jena made it lot of fun for me.” he said following his win.
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