'Abhi khel khatam nahi hua': Neeraj Chopra on missing gold at Paris Olympics

India’s star javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra missed out the Paris Olympics gold as Pakistan’s Arshad Nadeem destroyed the competition with his record-breaking attempt at the final match on Thursday.

Winning silver, India’s golden boy was all praise for his opponent and said that this is not the end of the story. Interacting with media after the match, Chopra said that – “khel abhi khatam nahi hua (game is not over yet).” He admitted that there were concerns regarding his injury and lack of enough practice.

Chopra said he was majorly thinking about his injury (adductor niggle) when he was going for his throws. However, he added that a lot needs to be done and when all the issues are resolved, he will surely bounce back. Chopra also scripted a unique record as he became the first Indian track-and-field athlete to win two Olympic medals on the row.

Before the Paris heartbreak, Chopra had never lost to Nadeem in their last 10 encounters. With this performance, the 27-year-old also extracted revenge of his loss to Chopra in the 2023 Budapest World Championships.

He was beaten by Chopra in the 2018 Asian Games and 2018 Commonwealth Games. Nadeem had come into the Olympics with just one competition under his belt -- an 84.21m throw at the Paris Diamond League last month.