An extended-awaited assembly between javelin stars Neeraj Chopra and Arshad Nadeem is confirmed because the Olympic gold medallists face one another on the World Athletics Championship 2025 in Japan.
India’s Chopra and Pakistan’s Nadeem have certified for the boys’s javelin closing on Thursday.
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Right here’s what you have to know concerning the occasion:
What time is the javelin closing involving Arshad Nadeem and Neeraj Chopra?
The ultimate will start at 10:23 GMT on Thursday.
The place is the javelin closing of the World Athletics Championship?
The Japan Nationwide Stadium in Tokyo is internet hosting the observe and discipline championship.
Which athletes have certified for the javelin closing?
Twelve athletes will take part within the closing.
The beginning record for the ultimate contains:
- Julian Weber (Germany)
- Anderson Peters (Grenada)
- Arshad Nadeem (Pakistan)
- Neeraj Chopra (India)
- Julius Yego (Kenya)
- Curtis Thompson (USA)
- Cameron McEntyre (Australia)
- David Wegner (Poland)
- Sachin Yadav (India)
- Rumesh Tharanga Pathirage (Sri Lanka)
- Jakub Vadlejch (Czech Republic)
- Keshorn Walcott (Trinidad and Tobago)
How does the qualification course of work?
All competing athletes need to endure the qualifying spherical, often known as the heats, the place they get three throws every.
On the World Athletics Championships, athletes with a throw of 84.5 metres (277.23 ft) or above entered the ultimate straight and took up the primary seven spots. The opposite 5 certified on the premise of one of the best throws amongst the remainder.
The variety of contesting athletes was 37, who have been divided into two heats, A and B.
Did Chopra and Nadeem compete in opposition to one another within the qualifying spherical?
No. Chopra was positioned in Warmth A, and Nadeem in B.
Who’re the top-ranked males’s javelin athletes?
Germany’s Weber is the top-ranked javelin athlete, adopted by Chopra and Peters.
Trinidad and Tobago’s Walcott is ranked fourth, and Kenya’s Yego is fifth.
What’s the prize cash for the javelin closing?
The winner will bag $70,000, whereas the second-placed athlete might be awarded $35,000, and the third-placed finisher will earn $22,000.
Why isn’t Arshad Nadeem ranked?
World Athletics rankings are achieved by amassing factors at WA competitions of various rankings throughout the athletics season.
Nadeem has been unable to compete at most WA competitions, largely as a result of monetary constraints, and has not earned sufficient factors to be ranked among the many world’s greatest.
Who’s Arshad Nadeem?
Nadeem hails from a small village close to the town of Mian Channu in southern Punjab state, about 300km (186 miles) southwest of the Pakistani megacity of Lahore.
The third of seven siblings, Nadeem grew up in a family that struggled to make ends meet. His father, Muhammad Ashraf, a retired development employee, was the only breadwinner.
As a toddler, Nadeem towered over his classmates. By the point he was 14, he was virtually six ft (183cm) tall.
Cricket was his old flame. “I was an excellent bowler and would take part in lots of tournaments,” Nadeem informed Al Jazeera in 2024.
His first worldwide outing as a javelin thrower got here on the 2016 South Asian Video games in India, the place he competed in opposition to the then-emerging Indian star Neeraj Chopra.
Nadeem, who went into the event with a niggle in his throwing elbow, nonetheless managed a throw of 78.33 metres (257 ft), profitable his first worldwide medal, a bronze, with Chopra securing gold.
He would go on to gather extra regional medals, earlier than making the world sit up and take discover on the Paris Olympics 2024, the place he broke the Olympic document to win gold – Pakistan’s first observe and discipline medal in its historical past.
Who’s Neeraj Chopra?
Chopra’s journey to the highest was not straightforward both. Rising up within the village of Chandra within the northern Indian state of Haryana, the younger Neeraj was commonly bullied over his weight. By age 11, he was already 80kg (176 kilos), at which level his father instructed he be part of a neighborhood health club.
It was there that he first took up athletics, with the javelin shortly turning into his favorite self-discipline.
“I actually preferred the javelin, particularly the way it flew, however I additionally watched so many movies of Jan Zelezny, the world document holder from the Czech Republic, so I watched so many movies of him and I actually preferred his approach and his angle in competitors,” he informed Al Jazeera in 2023.
By the age of 25, Chopra had received Olympic and world titles.
Chopra’s gold on the 2021 Olympic Video games in Tokyo, too, was the primary Olympic gold in observe and discipline for his nation.

What’s Neeraj Chopra’s private greatest throw?
The Indian athlete landed a 90.23-metre (296.03 ft) throw on the Doha Diamond League on Could 16.
What’s Arshad Nadeem’s private greatest throw?
Nadeem broke the Olympic document with a throw of 92.97 metres (305.02 ft) on the Paris Olympics on August 8, 2024.

What number of medals has Neeraj Chopra received?
The 27-year-old has collected the next medals:
- Olympic Video games: gold (2020), silver (2024)
- World Athletics Championship: gold (2023), silver (2022)
- Asian Athletics Championships: gold (2017)
- Commonwealth Video games: gold (2018)
- Asian Video games: gold (2018, 2022)
- South Asian Video games: gold (2019)
What number of medals has Arshad Nadeem received?
Nadeem’s tally contains:
- Olympic Video games: gold (2024)
- World Athletics Championship: silver (2023)
- Commonwealth Video games: gold (2022)
- Asian Athletics Championships: gold (2025)
- Asian Video games: bronze (2018)
- South Asian Video games: gold (2019), bronze (2016)
Are Arshad Nadeem and Neeraj Chopra associates?
Prior to now, the South Asian athletes have been vocal in lending help to at least one one other regardless of the fraught relationship between the nations.
After the World Athletics Championship closing in 2023, silver-medal-winner Nadeem mentioned he was delighted for Chopra’s gold medal and that each nations completed on the rostrum.
As soon as the medals have been handed out and the athletes have been celebrating on the observe, Chopra requested Nadeem to hitch him for a photograph. They then stood shut with their arms round one another.
The frequent phrases of encouragement and appreciation exchanged between Chopra, who received Olympic gold at Tokyo 2021, and Nadeem, who bagged gold at Paris 2024, rendered each the darlings of social media and the face of a uncommon cross-border friendship.

What occurred between Arshad Nadeem and Neeraj Chopra?
Following the aerial and navy battle between India and Pakistan in Could, Chopra mentioned it could be difficult to keep up the identical pleasant relationship with Nadeem.
“It won’t be prefer it was earlier than [the recent escalations],” Chopra informed Al Jazeera on Could 15, when requested concerning the repercussions of the tensions on his friendship with Nadeem.
“I by no means had a really deep friendship with him, however we have been all the time respectful in the direction of one another,” he added.
Following the four-day battle in Could, Chopra confronted intense social media backlash for inviting Nadeem to the Could 24 Neeraj Chopra Traditional javelin occasion in India.
The invitation was prolonged earlier than the assault and was declined by Nadeem, citing his preparations for the Could 27-31 Asian Athletics Championship in South Korea.
Chopra’s eponymous occasion was finally postponed within the wake of the cross-border battle, however not earlier than the 27-year-old Indian athlete launched a press release on April 25, saying Nadeem’s participation on the meet was “fully out of the query.”