Ever since winning the Gold Medal at the Tokyo Olympics earlier this month, Neeraj Chopra has been the nation’s favorite. However, not everything went as planned for the Gold medallist. Just ahead of the Javelin Throw finals in Tokyo, Neeraj wasn’t able to find his javelin.
Where was the Javelin?
The Javelin was with Pakistan’s Arshad Nadeem who had apparently walked away with it. “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. That’s why you must have seen that I took my first throw hurriedly!” Neeraj Chopra told Times of India in an interview.
Neeraj’s appreciation for Pakistan’s Arshad
“Arshad Nadeem gave a really good performance in the qualifying round as well as the final. 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,” Chopra went on to add about Nadeem’s performance at the Tokyo Olympics.
Need for changes
The 23-year-old persisted that things require changes and sports need continuous attention. “Aisa nahin hona chahiye ki ab medal aa gaya toh sab abhi kar do, aur phir ek mahiney baad sab shaant ho jao.” Basically, what he meant was that the appreciation for the sports and the sportsmen should not be momentary. They should be equally supported and appreciated after everything has settled down and they start going back to normal life.
“These things need to change. It’s a nice thing that a medal has come but everything needs to be systematic,” Chopra said in the interview.
