New Delhi: India’s Olympic gold medalist Neeraj Chopra has come forward to defend Pakistan’s Arshad Nadeem, who has been targeted by Netizens for “tampering” with Chopra’s javelin at the Tokyo Olympics.
Recently, Chopra said that Pakistan’s Arshad Nadeem, who had also qualified for the final in Tokyo, was “moving around” with his javelin just before he took his first throw. However, the gold medalist essentially did not attach any ill-will to it, and was perhaps simply narrating what had happened.
“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,” Neeraj Chopra was quoted in a Times of India article.
His statement blew up and now, a video of him taking his Javelin from Nadeem has gone viral.
Following this, the Pakistani player was slammed by netizens and was accused of ‘tampering’ with the javelin. But, Neeraj was quick to respond to the social media hate that Nadeem has been getting and posted a video requesting people to refrain from spreading hate against the player.
Taking to Twitter, he posted a video on Thursday, and wrote in the caption, “I request all of you not to make my comments a medium to further your dirty agenda. Sports teaches us all to live together and it is important to know the rules of the game before commenting.”
Neeraj Chopra won the gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics in style with two of his throws good enough to win the top prize in the men’s javelin final. With his very first throw, Neeraj Chopra achieved a distance no other athlete could in the entire final 87.03m.