Both javelin throwers are ecstatic about one other’s achievements and are enjoying the subcontinent emerging as the centre of the sport.
A new sporting rivalry between India and Pakistan was created after Neeraj Chopra and Arshad Nadeem created track and field history by placing one-two in the javelin throw at the World Championship. This rivalry lacks the edge of a cricket match between the two neighbours.
The typical poison that follows a close cricket match between India and Pakistan was absent the morning the video of Chopra calling out his lifelong friend from across the border Nadeem for a celebratory picture at the venue where they left the rest of the world behind went viral.
Syed Hussain Bukhari, Nadeem’s trainer and a five-time national javelin throw champion for Pakistan, remarked about the sport’s power shift as the subcontinent became the new centre for elite javelin throwers. India’s Kishore Jena and DP Manu both came in sixth.
