New Delhi: Odisha’s Kishore Kumar Jena gave countryman and Olympic champion Neeraj Chopra a run for his money in the Hangzhou Asian Games men’s javelin competition on Wednesday before the two Indians finished with gold and silver.
Jena started with a throw of 81.26 metres before managing 79.76m. Then came two monstrous efforts — a personal best of 86.77m, surpassing his previous best of 84.38, and then going even better with 87.54m in his fourth attempt.
At one point, Jena even led Neeraj, who had achieved 84.48m with his second effort. But then Neeraj hurled the javelin to a season’s best of 88.88m to maintain his supremacy.
Jena, who bettered his own best effort twice, sealed silver with a brilliant effort of 87.54m.
Not only was the men’s javelin 1-2 historic, India also won javelin events in both men’s and women’s events (Annu Rani).
Indians continued to shine in athletics, winning gold in men’s 4x400m relay. There were also silver medals from the women’s 4×400 women’s relay, women’s 800m (Harmilan Bains) and men’s 1500m (Avinash Sable). This was the second medal in these Games for both Harmilan and Sable.
India’s gold count went up to 18, while their medals tally has jumped to 80.
