Neeraj Chopra On His Rivalry With Pakistan’s Arshad Nadeem: “My Fight Is Against…”

Javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra of India, a world champion and Olympic medalist, acknowledged that while Pakistan’s Arshad Nadeem will receive some attention during the men’s javelin throw final, his primary focus is on competing against himself and improving his technique and throw in the championship event. On October 4, the men’s javelin throw final, which Neeraj won at the most recent World Athletics Championships to become India’s first-ever gold medalist, will serve as the opening event of the Asian Games in Hangzhou. During the competition, Arshad will be a competitor to watch out for.

“I’ve always won whenever Arshad and I played a game. But I always try to give my best, regardless of who is playing against me. When you compete in sports, you challenge yourself to perform at your best against yourself. Although there is some attention on India and Pakistan at the Asian Games because there are no European competitors, my competition is with myself, so I need to improve my throwing technique. We’ll see about the rest,” Neeraj told the press in Hangzhou.

According to Olympics.com, both athletes have competed against each other nine times in international competitions, seven times at the senior level and two times at the junior level.

These two athletes first came into contact at the South Asian Games in Guwahati in 2016, where Neeraj won gold and Nadeem came away with bronze. Neeraj now holds a 9-0 advantage over Nadeem.

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Despite Neeraj dominating overall numbers, Arshad is coming closer to the Indian ace’s performances since 2018 and could be a big threat to Neeraj’s supremacy. Pakistan’s Arshad holds a lead over Neeraj in terms of personal best throws, touching the 90.18 mark during CWG 2022, where he won gold. He piped then-world champion Anderson Peters of Grenada with this effort. Neeraj had missed the event due to an injury. It was only the second time after Chinese Taipei’s Chao-Tsun Cheng’s 91.26-meter throw at the 2017 World Underside that a South Asian athlete touched the 90-meter mark.