India's Neeraj Chopra and Pakistan's Arshad Nadeem will compete today in the men's javelin final at the Paris 2024 Olympics.
After a challenging few days, India's hopes now rest on Neeraj, who aims to defend the gold medal he won at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021.
Both Neeraj and Arshad qualified for the final with their best throws of the season. Neeraj led the qualifiers with a throw of 89.34m, while Arshad recorded a solid 86.59m throw.
Julian Weber of Germany was just behind Neeraj with a throw of 87.76m. Former world champion Julius Yego of Kenya and Tokyo Olympics silver medallist Jakub Vadlejch of Czechia followed with throws of 85.97m and 85.63m, respectively. Toni Keranen of Finland also qualified with a throw of 85.27m.
Neeraj's performance in the qualifier was the second-best of his career, easing concerns about his fitness after dealing with an adductor injury before the Games. His personal best remains 89.94m, achieved in 2022.
Kishore Jena, the other Indian competitor, did not qualify for the 12-man final, with a throw of 80.73m.
Neeraj won gold at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics with an 87.58m throw. If he wins another gold, he will become the first Indian athlete to win two gold medals in individual sports.
In Olympic history, only four athletes have defended the men’s javelin gold: Eric Lemming (Sweden), Jonni Myyra (Finland), Jan Zelezny (Czech Republic), and Andreas Thorkildsen (Norway).
Even if Neeraj wins silver or bronze, he would still become the most decorated Indian athlete in individual sports at the Olympics, surpassing PV Sindhu, Sushil Kumar, and Manu Bhaker, who each have won two Olympic medals.
Arshad Nadeem is also hoping to win a medal for Pakistan, which has only two individual Olympic medals in its history.
The javelin final at Paris Olympics is slated to begin at around 7.25 pm (UK time).
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