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Journalism of Courage
Reigning Olympic and world champion Neeraj Chopra claimed gold at the Hangzhou Asian Games, but only after considerable drama and a stiff competition from his compatriot Kishore Kumar Jena, who ended with silver. Neeraj’s medal came after a bizarre goof up at the start, with the officials seemingly unable to measure the distance of Neeraj’s first heave into the night. The throw looked like it had landed near the 85m mark. But after a long discussion between the officials, with Neeraj hovering by their table, they decided that the Indian should re-throw his first attempt due to the technical glitch on their part.
“Neeraj’s first throw was a very good throw. But they weren’t ready to measure it. Same thing also happened with Annu Rani (who won gold for India in women’s javelin throw event) yesterday. I don’t know why they are doing this with Indian athletes. They are trying to cheat us, disturb our athletes. Neeraj’s first throw was a very good one,” Anju Bobby George, who is a Senior Vice President Athletics Federation of India, told journalists after the event.
Neeraj, while looking disappointed, calmly walked back to his mark to throw his first attempt once again. Over 15 minutes had passed after the first throw, when Neeraj took his rethrow. This time it landed at the 82.38m mark.
Neeraj’s next throw of 84.49m extended his lead atop the leaderboard. He deliberately walked over the line after his third throw since it had not crossed the 80m mark. That led to it being declared a ‘no mark’. It was Neeraj’s fourth throw of 88.88m, a season’s best, that was good enough to held him seal gold. His compatriot Kishore claimed a silver medal with a best attempt of 87.54m.
At the half-way stage, Neeraj’s compatriot Kishore had surged into the lead with a 86.77m throw which was a personal best. Kishore’s third throw had come after there was another goof up from the organisers, who initially red flagged his second throw for crossing the throwing line.
But immediately as he was shown the red flag, Neeraj walked up to Kishore to ask him to go have a chat with the officials.
After watching replays on television, the officials overturned their decision and the throw was deemed legal.
Just like Neeraj had brushed off his own incident with the officials, Kishore too raced into the lead with a heave of 86.77m in his third attempt. That propelled him to the top of the standings and pushed Neeraj to second, albeit temporarily. Neeraj’s fourth throw of the night — 87.54m — took him into the lead once more.
With Pakistan’s Arshad Nadeem having pulled out of the event, Neeraj was expected to claim a medal. But Kishore’s silver was a pleasant surprise for the Indian contingent.
