No Arshad Nadeem-Neeraj Chopra javelin duel in India for now

The extremely anticipated face-off between Neeraj Chopra and Pakistan’s Arshad Nadeem, the gold medallist at Paris Olympics, on Indian soil has turn out to be a non-starter with the latter declining the invitation for the Neeraj Chopra Basic javelin occasion on Thursday, 24 April. The Basic, branded after Neeraj, is scheduled to be held in Bengaluru on 24 Might, has been categorised as a Grade A match by World Athletics.

 Nadeem, whose monstrous 92.97 metres throw at Paris Olympics shocked the world to be an Olympic and Asian report and can also be the sixth longest throw in historical past, mentioned on Thursday he wouldn’t be part of Neeraj’s occasion because the date clashes together with his coaching regime for Asian Athletics Championship which runs from 27-31 Might . The timing of the withdrawal, nevertheless, is uncanny because it comes two days after the dastardly Pahalgam terrorist assault in Jammu and Kashmir which noticed 26 civilians being killed.

 It was solely on Monday that Chopra unveiled plans for the occasion by way of a digital media interplay the place the likes of Anderson Peters and Thomas Rohler have already confirmed participation. Peters is a two-time world champion from Grenada and Rohler is the 2016 Olympics gold medallist. ‘’I’ve despatched invitation to Arshad and he mentioned he’ll get again to me after discussing together with his coach. As of now he’s but to substantiate participation,” the Tokyo Olympic gold medallist and world champion mentioned.