Currently the talk of the town, Neeraj Chopra has been having a lot on his plate since he returned back to India after winning India's first gold medal in the track-and-field event at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
However, not everything went according to plan for the Indian gold medallist as he recalled the time just before his first throw in the final. Apparently, Neeraj Chopra wasn't able to locate his javelin and after searching, he found it in the hand of Pakistan's Arshad Nadeem who had walked away with it.
"The story is that 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 my javelin! I have to throw with it'. Then he gave it back to me," Neeraj Chopra told the Times of India (TOI) in an interview.
"That's why you must have seen I took my first throw hurriedly! Arshad Nadeem gave a really good performance in the qualifying round as well as the final. I think it is good for Pakistan, they have a chance to show more interest in the javelin and do well at the international stage in the future," Chopra added.
As for Neeraj, he had been attending functions and events since his return from the Tokyo Olympics and had also fallen ill during this period.
"I had a fever. I used to be drenched in sweat while attending functions and then I used to get into air-conditioned cars. I wasn't getting any rest and I wasn't eating properly because of the busy routine," Chopra told TOI.
The 23-year-old later insisted that these things need to change. "Aisa nahin hona chahiye ki ab medal aa gaya toh sab abhi kar do, aur phir ek mahiney baad sab shaant ho jao" which translates to, "it shouldn't be as if we have to complete every celebration immediately because an Olympic gold medal has come, and then forget about it after a month. The sport needs continuous attention".
"These things need to change. It's a nice thing that a medal has come but everything needs to be systematic," Chopra said.
