Neeraj Chopra secured a gold medal at the recently-concluded Tokyo Olympics in the men's javelin throw event and in the process he went to create history by becoming the first Indian track and field athlete to finish at the podium in the showpiece event. Since Neeraj's qualifiers till the final event at Tokyo, Pakistan's Arshad Nadeem has also been among the news.


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Now in a recent interview with The Times of India, Neeraj said moments before his finals he was unable to find his javelin and later saw Arshad Nadeem roaming with it.  


This is what Neeraj said: “I was searching for my javelin at the start of the final in Olympics. I was not able to find it. Suddenly, I saw Arshad Nadem 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." 


Soon after his statement Arshad Nadeem started trending on Twitter but this time for all the wrong reasons. And now a video of the incident has gone viral on social media.


Here is the video:




Neeraj Chopra's reaction on the outrage among fans


A day later, the 23-year-old also tired to clear the air after his interview, which saw outrage among the netizens against the Pakistani athlete. Neeraj defended Arshad’s action and stated that it was well within the rules. 


He released a video statement in this regard, which can be found below: 



While Neeraj clinched India's gold with his effort at Tokyo Olympics, his Pakistani opponent Arshad Nadeem finished fifth. The Indian's biggest threat and world leader Johannes Vetter failed to make any impact.