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Star Pakistan javelin thrower Arshad Nadeem insists he has no rivalry with India’s World and Olympic champion Neeraj Chopra, and said there is always scope for learning from top athletes like the Indian.
Chopra on Sunday scripted history yet again as he became the first Indian to win a gold medal in the World Athletics Championships in Budapest with a big throw of 88.17m in the men’s javelin final here.
Nadeem, Pakistan’s reigning Commonwealth Games champion, took the silver with his season’s best throw of 87.82m, while Jakub Vadlejch of Czech Republic got the bronze.
It was an unprecedented result that saw athletes from India and Pakistan finish in the top two of a world track and field event, which is usually dominated by the Europeans.
Chopra and Nadeem have been tussling for the top honours at several big events over the years, with the Pakistani finishing a highly impressive fifth at the Tokyo Olympics when the Indian claimed a historic gold medal.
But the 26-year-old Pakistani athlete insisted recently that there has been no rivalry with his Indian counterpart.
“I don’t compete against any one. I try to always compete with myself and to do better and better. There is no rivalry with Neeraj,” Nadeem had told the media after qualifying for the final in Budapest.
“You can always learn from top athletes.”
After Chopra pulled out of last year’s Commonwealth Games in Birmingham because of a groin injury, Nadeem went on to win Pakistan’s first gold medal in any track and field event in 56 years.
Nadeem won the gold medal with a Herculean throw of 90.18 metres and Neeraj was the first to congratulate him on his monster achievement.
The two star athletes will now vie for the gold again at the Asian Games next month.
“I wish him the best that he does well and my job is to get better and better for my country,” Nadeem said. (with inputs from PTI)
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