Athlete Neeraj Chopra has released a video on social media urging people to not misuse his comment given in a recent media interview to ‘further their agenda’. Chopra in a Times of India interview was quoted saying that he found his javelin to be with Pakistani athlete Arshad Nadeem just before his first throw at the Tokyo Olympics 2020.
This created a huge uproar on social media with people criticizing and mocking the Pakistani athlete alleging foul play. However, Chopra has now released a video to clear his stand.
In a short one-minute video, Chopra can be heard saying that his statement has been misconstrued. “We all have our personal javelins but anyone can use these javelins. This is the rule and Nadeem was just practicing using my javelin. There is nothing wrong with it,” said Chopra in the video.
https://twitter.com/Neeraj_chopra1/status/1430816302415843331?ref_src=twsrc%5EtfwThe Times of India on Wednesday quoted Chopra saying, “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 mine. I have to throw with it.’ He gave it back to me.”
Apart from this the netizens also trended the video of the Olympic finals where Chopra can be seen taking his javelin back from Nadeem and throwing it hurriedly in the first attempt.
However, with this video statement, Chopra has put the controversy to rest.