Pakistan Olympian Arshad Nadeem Speaks Up On Javelin Controversy And Neeraj Chopra. This Is What He Said

Pakistan's Arshad Nadeem has also come out to share his opinion and said that the incident was "pretty common during competition". See his full statement.

New Delhi: Arshad Nadeem, Pakistan's best javelin thrower, has broken silence on the controversy involving him and India's gold medalist Neeraj Chopra. He said that the incident that happened during the final of Javelin Throw at Tokyo 2020 is "pretty common during competition(s)". 

Netizens in India had criticised Arshad for holding Neeraj Chopra's javelin just before his first throw at the final event at the recently concluded Tokyo Olympics. Some even accused him of "stealing" or "tampering with" Neeraj's javelin, after the latter said in an interview that he was looking for his javelin just before at the start of the final when he saw it was with Arshad Nadeem.

The trolling disturbed Neeraj too and he came out in defence of the Pakistani javelin thrower Thursday. 

Now, Arshad Nadeem has also shared his opinion. "It is possible that during practice this was Neeraj's favourite javelin which is why he took it from me. These things are pretty common during competition," he told Geo TV. 

The Indian thrower had posted a video with a caption: "I would request everyone to please not use me and my comments as a medium to further your vested interests and propaganda. Sports teaches us to be together and united. I'm extremely disappointed to see some of the reactions from the public on my recent comments." 

Let's take a look at what had transpired before this controversy:

Neeraj Chopra was quoted by TOI in an interview where had mentioned Nadeem walking with his javelin before the throw. He said, "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."