Neeraj Chopra and Arshad Nadeem shared a warm hand-shake after finish first and third respectively in the javelin throw event at the ongoing 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta-Palembang. However, the Pakistani athlete still has one small issue with his Indian competitor.
Neeraj Chopra won many hearts during the Asian Games 2018 in Jakarta-Palembang. It wasn't just for his stellar performance on the field, though. The 20-year-old bettered his own national record on his way to winning the javelin throw gold medal. But it wasn't just his massive throw of 88.06m that won people over, it was a warm gesture he made after his triumph that also caught everyone's attention.
While Neeraj raced to the top of the podium, China's Qizhen Liu won silver and Pakistan's Arshad Nadeem clinched bronze. During the medal distribution ceremony, fans were pleasantly surprised to see Neeraj bow his head down and shake hands with Arshad. The Pakistani athlete was quick to reciprocate Neeraj's gesture. It was heartwarming to see the two champions put the tensions between the two neighbouring countries aside and show respect for one another.
One of the most prominent personalities to notice this sweet moment was Indian tennis star Sania Mirza. The soon-to-be-mother took to Twitter to laud Neeraj for his sportsman spirit. "“Why I always say SPORT is the best ‘education’ you can provide your child with! Teaches you sportsmanship ,equality , respect and most importantly humanity! If only some people can learn this from our champion athletes too!! Well done to @Neeraj_chopra1 on the gold for India," she tweeted.
Here's her tweet
Arshad, too, was all praise for Neeraj after their duel on Monday. "Neeraj is an amazing talent. I have competed with him about eight times now including the SAFF Championships in India and Asian Junior Championships. But he has a foreign coach and I don’t. His achievements inspire me and my goal is to emulate him one day, maybe beat him too,” Arshad was quoted as saying by PTI.
The 21-year-old, however, had one sweet grievance. He said that Neeraj doesn't reply to his text message and he doesn't understand why. “Neeraj bhai jawaab hee nahi dete (he hardly responds to my whatsapp messages). He has done that only a couple of times and after that he stopped. I don’t know the reason for that. Maybe he is busy. I just meet him during tournaments," said Arshad.
"He has got a great technique and I am sure he has got full support from the government. I have never trained overseas and that makes a huge difference. It was a memorable trip. We came to Amritsar from Lahore by road. Aap log badi khatir or izzat karte ho (you people are great hosts). I would love to compete in India again," he added.
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 "Neeraj Chopra (L) and Arshad Nadeem on the podium during the 2018 Asian Games")
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