India's only gold medalist at Tokyo Olympics 2020, Neeraj Chopra, has opened up about an incident that happened on the day of the Javelin throw final. Neeraj recalled how Pakistan's Arshad Nadeem had taken his Javelin just before the start of the final. He also spoke of how they both share a nice bond with each other.
“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,” Neeraj Chopra told The Times of India in an interview.
A video about the incident also surfaced on Twitter. Take a look at the video where we see Neeraj Chopra taking his javelin back from Arshad Nadeem:
Arshad Nadeem played in the Javelin Throw final and performed well to secure 6th spot. Neeraj knows Arshad since a onmg time and both share a good bond. “That’s why you must have seen I took my first throw hurriedly! Arshad Nadeem gave a really good performance in the qualifying round as well as the final," Neeraj said in the interview.
"I think it is good for Pakistan, they have a chance to show more interest in the javelin and do well at the international stage in the future,” he further said.
Chopra's second throw of 87.58 meters was enough for India to secure a gold medal in Tokyo Olympics 2020. It is the first Gold medal after the 2008 Beijing Olympics for India. Abhinav Bindra was the last person to win a gold medal for India. Chopra is just 23 years old and has already created history in a sport that is rarely talked about, in India.