New Delhi: Top Indian athlete Neeraj Chopra and Pakistan’s reigning Olympic champion Arshad Nadeem are set for a high-profile rematch of their Paris Games javelin final at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo later this month.
Chopra, the reigning world champion, is leading a 19-member Indian team in the September 13-21 showpiece while Nadeem is the lone athlete from Pakistan.
Nadeem had beaten Chopra for gold at the Paris Games in August 2024 with a monster throw of 92.97m, an Olympic record.
Since then, the two rivals have not met each other on a javelin arena, but after more than a year, they are set to have a showdown in Tokyo in what will be a clash between Olympic and world champions.
The 27-year-old Chopra is a wild-card entrant in the men’s javelin event by virtue of being the defending champion. He has also thrown past the 85.50m direct qualifying mark many times during the qualifying period.
Nadeem, 28, breached the qualifying mark with his throw of 86.40m while winning gold in the Asian Championships in South Korea in May. Incidentally, that’s the lone event he has competed in after the Paris Olympics final.
The Pakistani athlete underwent calf muscle surgery in England in July.
The men’s javelin qualifying round of the world championships will be held September 17, and the final the next day.
The rivals were to have a showdown at the Diamond League Meeting in Silesia, Poland, August 16, but both pulled out of the event after the organisers initially confirmed their participation.
In fact, Nadeem did not compete in any four of this year’s DL meetings, which had men’s javelin in the roster, while Chopra competed in two and also finished second in the Diamond League Finals in Zurich August 28.
Three other Indians, Sachin Yadav, Yashvir Singh and Rohit Yadav are also featuring in the event in Tokyo, as India will have the largest number of men’s javelin throwers among competing countries.
With the expected return of Nadeem, the men’s javelin event in Tokyo will have the best of the lot in the business in action.
Diamond League Trophy winner Julian Weber of Germany will enter the event as favourite after three 90m-plus throws this year. He is also the world leader this season with his 91.51m while winning the DL Trophy in Zurich.
Chopra’s 90.23m throw, his first 90m-plus effort in his career, while finishing second in the Doha DL in May, is in third in the season’s top list.
The likes of two-time world champion Anderson Peters of Grenada, Julius Yego of Kenya, and Keshorn Walcott of Trinidad and Tobago will also be in action.
Brazilian Luiz Mauricio Da Silva, who has the second-longest throw of 91m last month, will also be a podium contender.
The 34-year-old Jakub Vadlejch of the Czech Republic, who won silver in the Tokyo Olympics and bronze in the 2023 World Championships, is also in the fray, though he has competed in just two events this year with a season best of 82.33m.
Chopra’s last event was in the DL Finals in Zurich August 28, when he had finished second to Weber with a mediocre throw of 85.01m. He had won titles this season in Paris Diamond League and Ostrava Golden Spike, as well as in the NC Classic in Bengaluru.
In the last edition in 2023, four Indians had qualified, but Rohit was forced to pull out due to an injury. Chopra had won gold with a throw of 88.17m while Kishore Jena and DP Manu had finished fifth and sixth as three Indians had reached the men’s javelin finals in a historic achievement.
PTI
