Hangzhou: That Neeraj Chopra defended his gold medal at the Asian Games was the other thing -- what everyone in the stadium wanted to know was what happened to his first throw on Wednesday.
After Chopra made his first throw, the officials failed to mark it and the Indian javelin thrower had to argue with the officials but eventually he was given another chance.
'I have never experienced this kind of situation when the officials claim that they can't find the mark where the javelin landed. They claimed the next competitor had taken his throw," said Chopra.
He said it was strange that such things keep happening with Indian athletes in this Asian Games. We all saw what happened with Jyothi (Yerraji). It is good that Indian athletes are standing up for themselves," said Chopra
He said on Wednesday, the officials had judged a throw by compatriot Kishore Kumar Jena as foul where it was a legitimate throw.
Athletics Federation of India (AFI) officials claimed that the officials had failed to register the first attempt by India's woman javelin thrower Annu Rani who won gold medal on Tuesday. She too had to argue with the officials to get her first attempt recorded.
"This is too much, they have gone too far this time," AFI vice-president Anju Bobby George said on Wednesday.
Some of the AFI officials see this as a conspiracy by local officials to disturb the concentration of the Indian athletes.
"It does impact the athlete if such a thing happens. But it is good that our athletes have kept their cool and did not lose their composure," said Chopra.
