Neeraj Chopra threw 1.87 meters farther than he did at the Tokyo Olympics, but even though he won gold there, he only took home silver in Paris as Pakistan’s Arshad Nadeem made history. Nadeem won the gold medal with a throw that set an Olympic record of 92.97 meters. In his final throw, he even cleared the 90-meter mark. He is the first sportsman from Pakistan to win an Olympic gold medal in an individual competition. Meanwhile, Neeraj becomes the third Indian to win an individual Olympic medal at two separate Games, following PV Sindhu and Sushil Kumar.
Earlier, India won the men’s hockey bronze medal for a second consecutive year, capping PR Sreejesh’s legendary career with a storybook conclusion. The beginning of Sreejesh’s career coincided with India’s exclusion from the Beijing Olympics. He thus ends his Olympic career with a silver medal in two straight games. India won bronze in Paris after defeating Spain 2-1. They have not won consecutive Games medals since 1972, which was essentially the end of the team’s Olympic glory years. Earlier, Aman Sehrawat advanced unopposed by technical superiority to the men’s 57kg semifinal. But in the semi-final, he was defeated by Japan’s Rei Higuchi due to technical superiority, and he will now compete for bronze.
In the men’s freestyle 57kg round of 16 match, Sehrawat defeated Vladimir Egorov of Macedonia with a score of 10-0. He then beat Albania’s Zelimkhan Abakarov 11-0 and thus stormed into the semi-final. Meanwhile, Anshu Malik lost her women’s 57kg round of 16 bout. It was later confirmed that she would not have a shot at bronze medal through repechage.
