India’s Olympic javelin gold medallist Neeraj Chopra on Friday said that he recieved ‘hate and abuse’ for inviting Pakistani rival Arshad Nadeem for the ‘Neeraj Chopra Classic’ in Bengaluru.
Neeraj Chopra, India’s Olympic javelin champion, has confirmed that his earlier invitation to Pakistani athlete Arshad Nadeem has been withdrawn, following the deadly attack in IIOJK.
The event, scheduled for May 24, was initially intended to feature top athletes, including Nadeem, but the tragic events of the past few days have forced Chopra to rethink his decision.
The attack on Tuesday has led to heavy criticism of Chopra’s invitation to Nadeem, who won gold in javelin at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Chopra, who won gold at the Tokyo Olympics and silver at the Paris Games, took to social media to address the backlash. “There has been so much talk about my decision to invite Arshad Nadeem to compete in the Neeraj Chopra Classic, and most of it has been hate and abuse,” he stated.
He reiterated that the invitation was meant purely as a gesture between athletes, “nothing more, nothing less,” and aimed to bring world-class events to India.
“The aim of the NC Classic was to bring the best athletes to India and for our country to be the home of world-class sporting events,” Chopra continued.
However, following the Kashmir attack, Chopra said, “After all that has taken place over the last 48 hours, Arshad’s presence at the NC Classic was completely out of the question.”
However, Nadeem, Pakistan’s first individual Olympic gold medallist, had already indicated that he would not attend the event due to conflicting training schedules.
Diplomatic tensions between the two nations has often gotten in the way of their sporting rivalry. Earlier this year, the Indian cricket team refused to travel to Pakistan for the Champions Trophy, opting to play their matches in Dubai instead. This was widely criticised.
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