Hangzhou: The Asian Games 2023 has not gone without controversies, and India has been at the receiving end. On Wednesday, India's Neeraj Chopra's first javelin throw was not registered by the Chinese organisers following a technical snag in the men's event.
This is not all. The line-defaulting referee raised a red flag despite Kishore Kumar Jena throwing the javelin way behind the fault line, but an ever alert Neeraj, who was watching his campatriot's throw, informed him to lodge a protest for the wrong call.
After Kishore pleaded for the reversal of the referee's decision with the Chinese officials, his throw was called right.
These two incidents surely played on the mind of Neeraj who threw the javelin 82.38m in his first official attempt, compared to about 87 meters in the unregistered throw.
Despite this, Neeraj was leading the pack with Kishore standing second at 81.26m.
In his second official throw, Neeraj threw the javelin to a distance of 84.49m, but lagged behind Kishore who threw 86.77m, ahead of Neeraj. However, Neeraj threw the javelin to a gold-winning distance of 88.88m in his 4th attempt.
Jyothi Yarraji's silver medal haul in the 100m hurdles did not come as one would have imagined. The Indian runner was disqualified in a dramatic fashion though China's Yanni Wu made a false start first, and was also disqualified.
Jyothi did not give up, and protested that it was Wu who committed the mistake which resulted in a heated discussion with officials on the sidelines, where both were also shown the replay of it, before being allowed to complete the discipline with review pending post-race.
Speaking on the unfortunate incident, Yarraji said that it was a horrible experience for her and added that cheating should never be appreciated in any sport.
Yarraji ended third in the race with Wu taking the second spot, but her medal was later upgraded to silver. She had clocked 12.91s to secure the silver medal in the women's 100m Hurdles final.
China's Yuwei Lin bagged the gold medal with a time of 12.74s, while Japan's Yumi Tanaka clinched the bronze. (UNI)
