Pakistan’s Olympic javelin champion Arshad Nadeem has been declared fully fit to compete at the upcoming World Athletics Championships in Tokyo, starting on September 13.
The 28-year-old athlete recently underwent a calf surgery in Cambridge, England, in July 2025, which sidelined him from the Diamond League circuit. However, after weeks of rehabilitation, his doctor, Dr. Asad Abbas, confirmed that Nadeem has fully recovered and is ready to participate at the highest level.
“I have monitored Arshad’s rehab closely and I am fully satisfied with his progress,” said Dr. Abbas. “He is in great shape to compete against the best, including Neeraj Chopra. I believe he can deliver an even stronger performance than we saw in Paris.”
The much-anticipated Nadeem vs. Chopra rivalry will once again take center stage in Tokyo. Their last face-off was at the World Championships in Budapest, where India’s Neeraj Chopra clinched gold with a throw of 88.17m, while Nadeem secured silver with a narrow margin of 0.35m.
Neeraj Chopra has established himself as a dominant force in athletics, with titles from the Asian Championships (2017), Asian Games (2018), and Commonwealth Games (2018), in addition to his historic Tokyo Olympics gold medal.
Arshad Nadeem, on the other hand, made headlines with his record-breaking 92.97m throw at the Paris Olympics, where he won Pakistan’s first Olympic gold in 32 years. His achievement ended a long medal drought for the nation since their last gold in field hockey at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics.
As Tokyo prepares to host the championships, fans around the world eagerly await another historic showdown between the two javelin stars.
