With every passing global/continental track and field event, the rivalry between Indian Olympic gold medalist Neeraj Chopra and Pakistan Commonwealth Games champion Arshad Nadeem is becoming one of the most exciting contests in world athletics. Rivalry between athletes/teams from two countries that are neighbors and have a shared history has always been one of the most intriguing aspects of different sports. India vs Pakistan is no different. Be it cricket, hockey or any other sport, this rivalry has always been in the spotlight and dominated.
In the world of athletics, there was a notable India-Pakistan duel between Indian track legend Milkha Singh and Pakistan’s Abdul Khaliq in the 1960s. The rivalry between Neeraj and Arshad is also slowly gaining momentum.
Neeraj has become a household name with his achievements on the field as he has won all the gold this sport had to offer him at the Olympics, Commonwealth Games, Asian Games, Diamond League and finally the World Championships in Athletics. His efforts have put Indian athletics on the map.
Although Arshad’s cabinet of medals/trophies is not as big as Neeraj, he is still the first Pakistani athlete to secure a medal in the World Championships. Yesterday he received silver, while Neeraj achieved historic gold. Less than a meter was the difference between Neeraj’s best throw of 88.17 m and Arshad’s best effort of 87.82 m. Nadeem also ended Pakistan’s 60-year wait for a CWG gold at Birmingham last year.
Head-to-head, both athletes have competed against each other in nine international events, seven times at the senior level and twice at the junior level, according to Olympics.com.
The first encounter between these two athletes was at the 2016 South Asian Games in Guwahati where Neeraj took gold and Nadeem took home bronze. As of now, Neeraj has a 9-0 lead over Nadeem.
Despite Neeraj dominating the overall numbers, Arshad has been closing in on the Indian ace’s performance since 2018 and could pose a major threat to his Olympic supremacy in Paris next year.
Pakistan’s Arshad is ahead of Neeraj in personal best throws, reaching the mark of 90.18 at CWG 2022 where he won gold. In this effort he surpassed then world champion Anderson Peters of Grenada. Neeraj had missed the event due to an injury. It was only the second time after the Chao-Tsun Cheng throw of 91.26 meters in Chinese Taipei at the 2017 World Underside that a South Asian athlete reached the 90-meter mark.
However, Neeraj has yet to reach this much-discussed 90m mark, with his personal best of 89.94m set at Sweden’s Stockholm Diamond League in 2022 also being a national record.
A look at the rivalry between Neeraj and Arshad in numbers:
EVENT Neeraj Chopra Arshad Nadeem
2016 South Asian Games, Guwahati 1st (82.23m) 3rd (78.33m)
2016 Asian Junior Championships, Ho Chi-Minh 2nd (77.60m) 3rd (73.40m)
2016 World Championships in Athletics U20, Bydgoszcz* 1st (86.48 m) 30th (67.17 m)
2017 Asian Athletics Championships, Bhubaneshwar 1st (85.23 m) 7th (78.00 m)
2018 Commonwealth Games, Gold Coast 1st (86.47m) 8th (76.02m)
2018 Asian Games, Jakarta 1st (88.06m) 3rd (80.75m)
2020 Tokyo Olympics 1st (87.58 m) 5th (84.62 m)
2022 World Championships in Athletics, Oregon 2nd (88.13 m) 5th (86.16 m)
2023 World Championships in Athletics, Budapest 1st (88.17m) 2nd (87.82m).
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