- Friday, April 26, 2024
By: Shubham Ghosh
NEERAJ Chopra, who created history earlier this month by winning a gold medal at the Olympic Games in Tokyo, on Thursday (26) appealed to people to not “further vested interests and propaganda” after his remarks about Arshad Nadeem, the javelin thrower from Pakistan, during the finals of the quadrennial event sparked a controversy.
In a recent interview with Indian daily Times of India, Chopra, 23, said that he was not able to locate his javelin initially during the event since Nadeem had been “moving around” with it before his first throw.
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“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 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,” Chopra was quoted as saying by the Times.
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The Indian fans were upset hearing this and allegations surfaced that the Pakistani athlete, who finished fifth in the event, was trying to “tamper” with Chopra’s javelin.
Chopra then stepped in to say on Twitter, “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.”
मेरी आप सभी से विनती है की मेरे comments को अपने गंदे एजेंडा को आगे बढ़ाने का माध्यम न बनाए। Sports हम सबको एकजूट होकर साथ रहना सिखाता हैं और कमेंट करने से पहले खेल के रूल्स जानना जरूरी होता है 🙏🏽 pic.twitter.com/RLv96FZTd2
— Neeraj Chopra (@Neeraj_chopra1) August 26, 2021
In a video that he posted on the social media platform, Chopra said, “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.”
“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,” he added.
Chopra, who works in the Indian Army, started off with a throw of 87.03 metres in the finals at the Tokyo Games. He bettered it in his second throw by recording 87.58 metres. Two of his attempts were foul but yet he ended up winning the gold, becoming the first individual gold-winner at the mega event since Abhinav Bindra won the top medal in shooting at the Beijing edition in 2008. He is also the first Indian since independence to win an Olympic medal in track-and-field events.
