Hours after Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated Javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra for his silver medal in the ongoing Paris Olympics 2024, he also spoke with him and enquired about his injury.
On Friday, PM Modi also lauded the sportsman spirit showed by his mother Saroj, who congratulated Pakistan's Arshad Nadeem for getting the gold.
In the call, PM said, as quoted by news agency ANI, "You made the country proud again. Even late at night at 1 AM, people were watching you in action, looking at you with hope."
He added, "I am still happy to get a medal for my country in these circumstances. There are ups and downs in sport."
Earlier on 8 August, Neeraj secured the silver medal in javelin throw with a best throw of 89.45 metres. He missed the Gold medal to Pakistan's Arshad Nadeem who ended up with a record throw of 92.97m in the game.
Nadeem's throw of 92.97 meters surpassed Denmark's Andreas Thorkildsen's mark from Beijing 2008. While Grenada's Anderson Peters secured bronze with a throw of 88.54 meters.
After winning the silver medal in Paris Olympics 2024, Neeraj didn't appear satisfied with his performance. He even revealed that the last two to three years were not good for him in terms of fitness.
Speaking after the event, as quoted by Olympics.com, Neeraj said, “It was a good throw but I am not that happy with my performance today. My technique and runway was not that good. (I managed) only one throw, the rest I fouled.”
"(For my) second throw I believed in myself to think I can also throw that far. But in javelin, if your run is not so good, you cannot throw very far," added Neeraj.
"The last two or three years were not so good for me. I am always injured. I really tried hard, but I have to work on my injury (staying injury-free) and technique," the 26-year-old added.
With agency inputs.
