When Pakistan’s Arshad Nadeem and Neeraj Chopra were involved in a javelin controversy during Tokyo Olympics

On Sunday at the Alexander Stadium, Pakistan javelin thrower Arshad Nadeem came up with a massive personal best of 90.18m for a Games Record in his fifth throw, jumping to the top of the standings and setting himself up for a medal.

Tokyo Olympics gold medallist Neeraj Chopra and his Pakistan counterpart Arshad Nadeem share a a great camaraderie when competing on the field. In Neeraj’s absence at the Commonwealth Games 2022, Pakistan’s Arshad Nadeem became the first Asian to breach the 90m mark and defeated World Champion Anderson Peters to clinch gold in Birmingham on Sunday (August 7).

On Sunday at the Alexander Stadium, Nadeem came up with a massive personal best of 90.18m for a Games Record in his fifth throw, jumping to the top of the standings and setting himself up for a medal. World Champion Anderson Peters of Grenada was placed second with a best throw of 88.64 metres. It was also a record of sorts, the furthest-ever second place throw in the history of the Commonwealth Games.

Kenya’s Julius Yego threw out of his skin to get a season`s best of 85.70m and take the bronze medal. In Chopra’s absence, India’s DP Manu finished fifth with a best throw of 82.28 while Rohit Yadav was placed sixth with an effort of 82.22 metres.

But last year, Neeraj Chopra raised a storm with his revelation in an interview that Pakistan’s Arshad Nadeem had picked up his javelin ahead of the Olympics final. Social media was up in arms at this revelation, even blaming Nadeem for trying some underhand tactics to gain an edge over eventual champion Neeraj Chopra.

The 23-year-old defended Arshad Nadeem’s action and claimed that it was well within the rules. “A huge deal has been made about Pakistan’s Arshad Nadeem picking up my javelin before the men’s final at Tokyo Olympics. We can keep out personal javelin in the rack and any of the other athletes can use it as well – that’s the rule. There is nothing wrong in that because he was preparing for his throw and I was preparing for mine,” Neeraj Chopra said in a video posted on his social media account.

____ __ ___ __ _____ __ __ ____ comments __ ____ ____ ______ __ ___ ______ __ ______ _ _____ Sports __ ____ _____ ____ ___ ____ ______ ___ __ _____ ____ __ ____ ___ __ _____ _____ _____ ____ __ __ pic.twitter.com/RLv96FZTd2

— Neeraj Chopra (@Neeraj_chopra1) August 26, 2021

“I am upset that such a big deal has been made out of the incident while using my name. I request to everyone, please don’t do that. Sports sabhi ko milke chalna sikhata hai. Hum sab javelin thrower aapas mein pyar se rehte hain, koi bhi aisi baat na karein jisse humko thes pohonche,” the Olympics gold medallist added.

“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,” Neeraj said in an interview to TOI.

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. Watch the video of the incident between Arshad Nadeem and Neeraj Chopra here...

Arshad Nadeem caught tampering with @Neeraj_chopra1 Javelin in the @Olympics final. pic.twitter.com/8isNbGQw6Z

— Jangra_jee (@jangra_jee) August 25, 2021

With his effort on Sunday, Nadeem beat Neeraj Chopra’s Tokyo Olympic throw of 87.58m, which had fetched the Indian a gold medal, and the World Athletics Championship throw of 88.13m. Nadeem had finished behind Chopra in both these events.