{"id":18830,"date":"2025-09-11T12:04:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-11T12:04:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=18830"},"modified":"2025-09-11T12:04:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-11T12:04:07","slug":"soured-rivalry-india-v-pakistan-as-brothers-clash-for-world-gold","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=18830","title":{"rendered":"Soured rivalry: India v Pakistan as ‘brothers’ clash for world gold"},"content":{"rendered":"
India’s Neeraj Chopra and Arshad Nadeem of Pakistan will battle for javelin gold in Tokyo next week, the latest chapter in a brotherly rivalry which has soured since a deadly military conflict between their countries.<\/p>\n

The Tokyo Olympic champion, Chopra, and his successor in Paris, Nadeem, will line up at the athletics world championships for their first encounter since the nuclear-armed neighbours engaged in a four-day conflict in May, their worst since 1999.<\/p>\n

Chopra, who took Olympic silver behind his great rival a year ago, had often spoken about his friendly relations with Nadeem despite the tensions between their countries.<\/p>\n

After Nadeem won gold and Chopra stood alongside him on the podium in Paris, Nadeem’s mother Raziah Parveen said: “Winning and losing is part of sport, but they are like brothers.”<\/p>\n

Chopra’s mother Saroj said she took some solace in Nadeem beating her son because the Pakistani “is also our boy”.<\/p>\n

But publicly at least that changed after the conflict, with high-profile figures from both countries under pressure to distance themselves from the other side.<\/p>\n

The 27-year-old Chopra, who will defend his world title in Tokyo, said that they were “never really close friends”.<\/p>\n

Nadeem, 28, also played down any friendship with Chopra.<\/p>\n

“When he won, I congratulated him, and when I won the gold, he returned the same courtesy,” Nadeem told AFP by telephone en route to Tokyo.<\/p>\n

“(Just as) in wrestling, one wrestler wins and the other loses — it’s part of the game.”<\/p>\n

– Invitation withdrawn –<\/p>\n

Nadeem, who is returning to competition after calf surgery in July, hails from a farming village.<\/p>\n

He became an overnight sensation when he gave Pakistan their first Olympic gold in 40 years with a Games-record throw of 92.97m.<\/p>\n

Nadeem has competed only once since Paris, winning the Asian Athletics Championships in South Korea in May when Chopra did not participate.<\/p>\n

The last time the pair clashed was at the Paris Olympics.<\/p>\n

In April, the Indian star invited Nadeem to India for his ‘Neeraj Chopra Classic’ javelin event but the Pakistani declined, saying it clashed with his training schedule.<\/p>\n

Chopra then withdrew the invitation after an attack in Pahalgam in Indian-administered Kashmir on April 22 killed 26 people, mostly Hindu tourists.<\/p>\n

India accused Pakistan of backing the attackers, a charge Islamabad denied.<\/p>\n

In the conflict that followed more than 70 people were killed in missile, drone and artillery fire on both sides.<\/p>\n

“I want to clarify that I don’t have a particularly strong relationship with Nadeem, we were never really close friends,” Chopra said afterwards.<\/p>\n

“But because of the current situation, things will not be as they were. That said, if someone speaks to me with respect, I always respond in kind.”<\/p>\n

– Fine form –<\/p>\n

Chopra became a national hero in India after his Tokyo gold, earning million-dollar endorsement deals with his boyish charm, changing hairstyles and infectious smile.<\/p>\n

He won the world title in Budapest in 2023 and has been in fine form since joining Czech javelin great Jan Zelezny’s coaching group ahead of the 2025 season.<\/p>\n

He went past 90m for the first time when he threw 90.23m at the Doha Diamond League meeting in May, but finished second to German Julian Weber.<\/p>\n

At the Zurich Diamond League last month, Weber once again stood on top of the podium, with a throw of 91.51m. Chopra was second with 85.01m.<\/p>\n

Along with Weber, also in Tokyo will be two-time world champion Anderson Peters of Grenada.<\/p>\n

The world championships start on Saturday, with the men’s javelin final on September 18.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

India’s Neeraj Chopra and Arshad Nadeem of Pakistan will battle for javelin gold in Tokyo next week, the latest chapter in a brotherly rivalry which has soured since a deadly military conflict between their countries. The Tokyo Olympic champion, Chopra, and his successor in Paris, Nadeem, will line up at the athletics world championships for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18830","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18830","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18830"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18830\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18830"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}