It's an all-India win at the javelin throw event in the 19th Asian Games in Hangzhou as Neeraj Chopra defended his Gold medal with an 88.88-metre throw while Kishore Kumar Jena won a Silver with his personal best of 87.54 meters as he almost threatened the golden boy of the top spot at one point. It seemed like the Indian duo was competing within themselves only as after a couple of weak throws, both Neeraj and Jena came into their own.
Neeraj's first throw was almost 87 metres long, however, it was declared invalid due to a technical malfunction. The malfunction meant a delay in the event after first throws of Chinese Taipei's Chao-Tsun, Neeraj and Kuwait's Abdulrahman. The delay lasted for almost 10-12 minutes, after which it was decided that Neeraj and Abdulrahman had to throw their first attempts yet again.
Neeraj's first throw was weak at 82.38 metres while Kishore Jena too started with a sub-81 metre throw. Chopra bettered it with an 84.49m throw in his second attempt while Jena's second didn't even reach 80. However, both Neeraj and Jena had something special in store. Neeraj had another weak throw so he didn't get it registered and Jena came up with a surprise.
The 28-year-old from Odisha surprised Neeraj, himself and the whole of India with his personal best throw of 86.77 metres in his third attempt and was now leading the Gold medal race. But Neeraj wasn't going to back down as he came up with his season-best throw of 88.88m throw. Who said Jena was happy with his third attempt?
He bettered his personal best once more in the same event with an 87.54m throw. However, he couldn't better that in the last two throws but was able to clinch a Silver medal medal. Jena's previous personal best came in the World Championships in Budapest, 84.77 metres.
Neeraj, on the other hand, threw 80.80 metres in his fifth attempt but didn't give it all in the sixth as his fourth attempt of 88.88 metres was enough for him to clinch another Gold medal in Asian Games, his second at the event as he was able to defend his title. Chopra's previous season best was in the World Championships final when he threw 88.77 metres.
Japan's Roderick Genaki Dean clinched Bronze with an 82.68m throw.
Neeraj's Gold helped India record their best-ever tally,17, in Asian Games history in terms of the top medal. The men's 400m relay team made it 18 as India's overall tally reached 81.
