Neera Chopra will start his defense at the World Championship in Athletics 2025, when he joins the Men’s Javelin Qualifiers at the National Stadium in Tokyo on Wednesday, and the final is scheduled for Thursday. While Chopra and Arshad will not face the qualifying round, the Indian spear Maverick is expected to meet his Pakistani rival in the medal, has been repeating in recent years.
At the last edition of the World Championship in Budapest in 2023, Chopra created a history by becoming the first Indian World Athletics Champion with 88.17 m. Arshad was not behind, taking silver with 87.82 mA became the first Pakistani medalist for the event. The rivalry between them has intensified since then and reached its peak at the Olympic Games in Paris 2024, where the Pakistani throw denied Chopra the second straight Olympic gold medal.
The performance above Paris was nothing extraordinary. He made Monster’s efforts 92.97 m, the Olympic record and the Asian record to win the first individual Olympic gold medal in Pakistan. His throw was 3.52 m further than Chopra best at night, with his last attempt 91.79 m to underline his dominance. For a man who has already created a history of Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games with a throwing of 90.18 m, which ended Pakistani 60 years of waiting for athletic gold in games, Paris was a crowning moment. On the other hand, Chopra, who had dominated the rivalry until then, was left with silver, although it gave a strong series.
However, the record between these two remains firmly in favor of Chopra. In international competitions, they faced each other, eight of them at a higher level and two in junior meetings. Chopra leads 9–1. Their rivalry began at the South Asian Games in Guwahati in 2016, where Chopra won gold with 82.23 and took bronze with 78.33 m. Chopra reached the 78.20 mA group continued to win the gold medal with the world record U20 86.48 m, while Nada took 15th place in the group and finished in 30th place and did not reach the finals.
Neera Chopra vs Arshad Nadeem: Record of Head
South Asian Games 2016, Guwahati
- Neera Chopra: 1st (82.23 m)
- ARSHAD NADEEM: 3. (78.33 m)
- Asian junior championships 2016, HO chi-min
- Neera Chopra: 2. (77.60 m)
- ARSHAD NADEEM: 3. (73.40 m)
World Athletics Championship U20 2016, Bydgoszcz*
- Neera Chopra: 1st (86.48 m)
- ARSHAD NADEEM: 30. (67,17 m)
Asian Athletic Championship 2017, Bhubaneswar
- Neera Chopra: 1st (85.23 m)
- ARSHAD NADEEM: 7. (78.00 m)
Commonwealth Games 2018, Gold Coast
- Neera Chopra: 1st (86.47 m)
- ARSHAD NADEEM: 8. (76.02 m)
Asian Games 2018, Jakarta
- Neera Chopra: 1st (88.06 m)
- ARSHAD NADEEM: 3. (80,75 m)
Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games
- Neera Chopra: 1st (87.58 m)
- ARSHAD NADEEM: 5. (84.62 m)
World Athletics Championship 2022, Oregon
- Neera Chopra: 2. (88,13 m)
- ARSHAD NADEEM: 5. (86,16 m)
World Athletics Championship 2023, Budapest
- Neera Chopra: 1st (88.17 m)
- ARSHAD NADEEM: 2. (87.82 m)
Paris 2024 Olympics
- Neera Chopra: 2nd (89.45 m)
- ARSHAD NADEEM: 1st (92.97 m)
Chopra had a large extent on top whenever they shared the field, but he added at the crucial moments when the Indian was missing or when history called. In Birmingham 2022, when Chopra missed Commonwealth Games through an injury, he took advantage of the opportunity to win gold with his first throwing 90 m plus. Two years later, he stunned the world with his Olympic record in Paris.
Among them, Neera Chopra and Arshad transformed the spear into one of the most convincing rivalry in athletics.
– ends
Published:
Debodinna Chakracorty
Published on:
September 17, 2025
