Neeraj Chopra and Pakistan’s Arshad Nadeem are two of the brightest javelin throwers in the world. Both are Olympic gold medallists and their duel at the Paris Olympics was widely followed across the world. On the eve of the Diamond League in Doha, the two-time Olympic medallist, and reigning world champion, sought to set the record straight when asked about his equation with Arshad, who won the gold medal in the Paris Games last year after the Indian finished at the top of the podium in the Tokyo edition in 2021.

Neeraj also cleared the air over his relationship stance with Nadeem after the after recent border tensions between India and Pakistan following the Pahalgam terrorist attack on April 22. 

Ahead of the Doha League on Friday, a reporter asked Neeraj: “You both (him and Arshad) are close friends on and off the field, you have shown athletes can bring the world together. Will the recent happening affect your relationship?”

“First of all, I really want to clear that I don’t have a very strong relationship. I mean we have to talk…I have good friends in the athletics community all around the the world. But if somebody talks to me respectfully, I always like to talk to him respectfully. It’s good that all javelin throwers are…because it’s a very small community, everyone competes for their country, everybody wants to give their best,” Neeraj Chopra replied. 

“Because of this (recent border tension between India and Pakistan) I don’t think so, it will be not like something like before. If somebody gives be respect, I will give him the same.”

 The Paris Games silver-winning star from Haryana had earlier said he was deeply hurt to see his and his family’s integrity being questioned in abusive social media posts after an invitation was extended to Nadeem to compete in the tournament held in his honour.

Chopra had then clarified that invites for NC Classic were sent out a day before the Pahalgam terror attack in which 26 people, mostly tourists, were killed by terrorists with links to Pakistan.

At a venue where he will have sizeable crowd support thanks to expatriate Indians, Chopra will face two-time world champion and 2024 Olympics bronze-winner Anderson Peters of Grenada, Jakub Vadlejch of Czechia, who won here in 2024, the German duo of Julian Weber and Max Dehning, Kenya’s Julius Yego and Roderick Genki Dean of Japan.

Almost all of them have been have been Chopra’s rivals at major competitions for a while now. A notable absentee is 2024 Paris Olympics gold-winner Arshad Nadeem of Pakistan.

Chopra’s compatriot Kishore Jena, who won a javelin silver medal at the Asian Games but is struggling of late, will also be one of the 11 competitors.

Jena (Personal Best: 87.54m) competed here in 2024 as well, finishing ninth with a throw of 76.31m.

Vadlejch won here with a best throw of 88.38m while Chopra was 2cm behind with 88.36m. Peters was third with 86.62m.

Chopra, who won gold at the Tokyo Olympics and then a silver at the 2024 Paris Games, first competed in the Doha DL in 2018 when he finished fourth with a best throw of 87.43m.

With PTI inputs