The absence of Olympic champion Arshad Nadeem is a ‘big loss’ to the sport of javelin at the inaugural Neeraj Chopra Classic next month in Bengaluru, felt 2016 Rio Olympics silver medallist Julius Yego. Nadeem, who had won gold at the Paris Olympics ahead of Neeraj last year, was among the invitees for the first-of-it’s-kind javelin competition in India, which is set to take place on May 24 at the Kanteerava Stadium.
The 28-year-old, who threw a record distance of 92.97m in Paris last year, citing preparations for the Asian Athletics Championships as a reason to give this even a miss. The Asian Athletics Championships will be held in Korea from May 27 to 31.
“I feel for Nadeem! It could have been so nice for him to compete there (at Neeraj Chopra Classic). To me it’s a loss to the big sport. I also feel for Neeraj because he has tried his best to have him come but situations didn’t allow it to happen,” Yego, a javelin world champion in 2015, told Livemint in an exclusive interaction from Kenya.
“So it’s a shame we will not have the Olympic champion (Arshad) competing in this very important event by Chopra in India,” added Yego, who is one of the overseas athletes in the one-day event.
Besides Yego, Anderson Peters (Grenada), Thomas Rohler (Germany), Curtis Thompson (USA), Genki Dean (Japan), Luiz Mauricio da Silva (Brazil) and Rumesh Pathirage (Sri Lanka) are the other overseas competitors in the event. The Indian line-up will be announced soon.
