Arshad Nadeem, of Pakistan, competes in the men's javelin throw final at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. (Photo | AP)
TOKYO: Pakistan's Arshad Nadeem, who finished fifth in Olympic men's javelin throw, congratulated India's Neeraj Chopra on winning gold medal in Saturday's competition and also apologised to his nation for not fulfulling their hopes of a medal.
Nadeem was Pakistan's biggest medal hope at the Olympics but his best throw of 84.62 wasn't good enough for a medal. Chopra won gold with a best throw of 87.58. The silver and bronze medals went to Czech Republic while the fourth place went to Germany.
"Congratulations to #NeerajChopra for winning first place [emoticon: gold medal] #JavelinThrow competition in #TokyoOlympics," tweeted the 24-year-old Nadeem who considers 23-year-old Chopra as his role medal.
Prior to the competition, he had tweeted a picture of himself and Chopra at the podium of the 2018 Asian Games where the Indian won gold and the Pakistani won bronze.
Don't forget that beautiful moment from 2018 Asian Games Vs
— Arshad Nadeem
We are competing again in #Javelin throw at #Tokyo2021 at 4:00 pm PST#ArshadNadeem| #NeerajChopra #Athletics #Tokyo2020 pic.twitter.com/x9vM3BLIdP
