Asian Games: Good to see an Indian thrower pushing me to give my best, says Neeraj Chopra of battle with Kishore Jena

For a while it looked like an Indian javelin thrower would finish ahead of Neeraj Chopra in the Asian Games javelin throw competition in Hangzhou.

Neeraj Chopra is the undisputed king of Indian javelin throw since he made his mark in 2016 by becoming the first Indian competitor to win a junior world title in athletics.

Since then, he has won the Asian Games gold in 2018, the Commonwealth Games gold in 2018, the Olympic gold medal in 2021, the World Championship silver medal in 2022, and the World Championship gold medal in 2023 in Budapest. He has been untouchable as none of the Indians had come closer to the distances he has managed.

So, when Kishore Kumar Jena threw the spear to 87.54m during the Asian Games here on Wednesday, he relegated Chopra to second position with 84.49m. The moment was just like Dommaraju Gukesh overtaking Viswanathan Anand to become the highest-rated Indian player in chess.