"Maybe it was his favourite and he wanted to throw it with it. That’s why he came to me and ask for that Javelin,” Nadeem Arshad said.
After Olympic gold medalist Neeraj Chopra spoke about the controversy that has been created around an incident that took place at the finals of the Javelin event at the Tokyo Olympics earlier this month involving Pakistan's javelin thrower Nadeem Arshad, the latter has now claimed that all the javelin were provided by the International Olympic Committee and he started practising with one in the rack.
“Actually, javelins were provided by the Olympic committee. I was practising with a Javelin and Neeraj came to me and said it was his Javelin so I gave him,” Nadeem was quoted as saying by Arysports.tv.
“I am not sure whether that Javelin was provided to the management by India or not. Maybe it was his favourite and he wanted to throw it with it. That’s why he came to me and ask for that Javelin,” he added.
In a video message posted on Twitter on Thursday (August 26), Neeraj Chopra had said: "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 (sic)".
Earlier in an interview to ToI, Chopra had recalled the time just before his first throw in the final. Apparently, he wasn't able to locate his javelin and after searching, he found it in the hand of Pakistan's Arshad Nadeem who had walked away with it.
"The story is that I was searching for my javelin at the start of the final. 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'. Then he gave it back to me," Neeraj Chopra had said in the interview.
"That's why you must have seen I took my first throw hurriedly! Arshad Nadeem gave a really good performance in the qualifying round as well as the final. I think it is good for Pakistan, they have a chance to show more interest in the javelin and do well at the international stage in the future," Chopra had added in the interview.
This led to Nadeem facing a lot of criticism from Indians and Neeraj Chopra's fans.
As for Neeraj, he had been attending functions and events since his return from the Tokyo Olympics and had also fallen ill during this period.
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 "Pakistan's Nadeem Arshad said THIS about picking Neeraj Chopra's javelin during Tokyo 2020 finals")
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