Neeraj Chopra’s ‘missing’ javelin was with Pakistan’s Arshad Nadeem before Olympic finals

Neeraj Chopra

Olympic gold medalist Neeraj Chopra has revealed that he was not being able to locate his javelin moments before his turn came up at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic finals.

In an interview with the Times of India, Neeraj Chopra said that he later found Pakistani athlete Arshad Nadeem walking around with his javelin.

A Times Now report quoted Chopra as saying in the TOI interview: “The story is that I was searching for my javelin at the start of the final. I was not able to find it. Suddenly I saw Arshad Nadeem was moving around with my javelin. Then I told him, ‘Bhai give this javelin to me, it is my javelin! I have to throw with it’. Then he gave it back to me.”

He added: “That is why you must have seen me take my first throw hurriedly!”

The Olympic gold medalist, however, was all praise for Pakistan’s Arshad Nadeem and said he also performed really well in both the qualifying and the final rounds.

Elaborating more on Nadeem’s performance, he said: “I think it is good for Pakistan, they have a chance to show more interest in javelin and do well at the international stage in the future.”

The 23-year-old further said in the interview that the attention given to sports must not be sporadic but sustained. He recounted how he took ill after he returned to India.

“I had a fever. I used to be drenched in sweat while attending functions and then I used to get into air-conditioned cars. I was not getting any rest or being able to eat properly due to the busy schedule,” Neeraj Chopra said.