NEW DELHI:
Tokyo Olympics
gold medallist
Neeraj Chopra on Thursday said he was "disappointed" to see people pushing their "vested interests" following a viral video that showed the Indian athlete on the lookout for his
javelin
moments before the finals of the javelin event in August.
The video doing the rounds on social video further showed the Indian athlete spotting his javelin in the hands of Pakistan athlete
Arshad Nadeem
and then rushing towards him to take it back before his first attempt on the historic night.
While the turn of events leading into the throw didn't hamper Neeraj's prospects of winning the gold, many fans questioned the motive behind Nadeem picking "someone" else's javelin. Neeraj on Thursday requested everyone to not use him or any of his comments as a medium to further their vested interests.
"I would request everyone to please not use me and my comments as a medium to further your vested interests and propaganda. Sports teaches us to be together and united. I'm extremely disappointed to see some of the reactions from the public on my recent comments," Neeraj said in a video he posted on Twitter.
Further clarifying the rules of the javelin competition, Neeraj elucidated, "I thank everyone for the love and support. Recently in one of my interviews, I said that I took my javelin from Pakistan's Arshad Nadeem before my first attempt. A big issue has been created out of this, I would like to clarify all throwers as per rule are allowed to use the javelin.
"So there is nothing wrong in what Arshad did by taking my javelin to prepare and I asked him for the javelin for my throw, this is not a big issue. I urge everyone to further not create any issue on this. We all javelin throwers compete in a sporting manner," he added.
Neeraj threw 87.02 metres in his first attempt but bettered his record in the second essay with a distance of 87.58m in the mega event to pick the gold.