HANGZHOU: “Aaj mazaa aa gaya. Thank you, Kishore Jena.” The javelin final was anything but fun for Neeraj Chopra. His opening effort, well in the 85m-plus range, was not recorded with officials citing a glitch in the electronic distance measurement. Neeraj was asked to throw again. He complied, and duly took lead in his second attempt with 84.49m.
Then teammate Kishore Jena’s clearly legit second throw was red flagged.
The Indians sought a review and had it reverted. Jena’s riposte came as a stunning 87.54m in his fourth, better than his world championship effort this August. It also suddenly left the world andOlympic champ Chopra with a mountain to climb.
Asian Games 2023: Neeraj Chopra and Kishore Jena win Gold and Silver for India in Javelin throw competition
Neeraj’s reply was a terrific 88.88m, better than the 88.17m that made him world champion. The 1-2 in javelin capped a historic day for India, when the country’s Asiad medal tally surged to 81, its highest ever.