Olympic gold winner Neeraj defends Pakistani athlete from online trolls

Neeraj Chopra, one of only two Indians to have won an individual Olympic gold, on Thursday defended a fellow athlete from Pakistan from social media trolls. 

Chopra urged people to not “further vested interests and propaganda” after his comments on Arshad Nadeem’s actions during the finals of javelin event in Tokyo were blown out of proportion.

“Arshad Nadeem was not tampering with my javelin. He was just practicing for his throw, and nothing else,” Chopra said in a video posted online.

“We keep our personal javelin during the event and anyone can use it. There is no specific rule about it.”

In a recent interview with The Times of India, the 23-year-old from Panipat revealed that he wasn’t initially able to locate his javelin during the event because Nadeem had been “moving around” with it before his first throw.

Also read: Neeraj Chopra’s journey to glory

“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.’ He gave it back to me. That’s why you must have seen I took my first throw hurriedly,” ToI quoted Chopra as saying.

Fans then took to social media to question Nadeem’s intentions, with some reports even claiming that the Pakistani athlete was trying to “tamper” with Chopra’s javelin.

“I want to talk about an issue… in a recent interview, I had talked about how I had taken my javelin before a throw in the Tokyo Olympics finals from Pakistan’s Arshad Nadeem. Now, this has been turned into a huge issue for no reason. Javelin throwers keep their personal javelins in one place before any event and all athletes can use them… it’s a rule. So obviously, it was not wrong of him to prepare with my javelin,” Chopra said.

“I am saddened to realise that people are exaggerating the issue on the back of my name. Sports is something that teaches us to walk together and all javelin throwers share mutual respect and love. So, please don’t say hurtful things.”

Chopra won the gold with a throw of 87.58 meters.