World Athletics Championships: It's Neeraj Chopra's precision vs Arshad Nadeem's power

Bengaluru: The ongoing Asia Cup cricket tournament in the UAE is the biggest sporting spectacle at the moment as far as the sub-continent is concerned. With all due respect to all participants, the multi-nation tournament is essentially about the India-Pakistan rivalry. The much-awaited game in the Middle East, however, may not augur well in terms of quality as the scale is tilting heavily in favour of the Men in Blue. Instead, another Indo-Pak duel promises a nail-biter with higher stakes at play somewhere else on the same continent.

That's because reigning World Champion Neeraj Chopra is putting his title on the line next Sunday in an expected 12-man showdown with Pakistan's reigning Olympic Champion Arshad Nadeem, laying one of the sizeable claims to strip the Indian off it at the World Championships in Tokyo.

One may argue that 28-year-old Arshad barely stands a chance against Neeraj (27) this season as the Panipat-born athlete has finally breached the 90m-mark this year for a new personal best of 90.23m. Arshad, on the other hand, had his struggles with injury and only competed at the Asian Athletics Championships in Korea last May for his season best of 86.40 (gold medal).

Clash of different styles

The Mian Channu-born javelin thrower, however, has a knack for showing up at the big-ticket events as he did last year when he hurled the javelin past 90m twice in Paris to set the new Olympic and Asian record at 92.97. The astonishing attempt came just a month after Arshad had managed a season best of 84.21 at the Paris Diamond League.

The 8-metre improvement was unheard of for those who were engrossed in Neeraj’s career, which saw the javelin superstar take four years to move from 88.07m to his current personal best. While each javelin thrower is unique in its own way, the immense difference in the graph of Neeraj and Arshad’s growth points to the two different styles of throwing. From runway to release, even a layman can immediately spot how different the Indo-Pak rivals are with their approach but the experts reveal a whole new perspective.

“There are different traits to different javelin throwers. Neeraj is a great technical thrower while Arshad is a great power thrower,” decorated US throws coach Steve Lemke tells DH. “Technical throwers probably have slower and steadier improvements, and power throwers can make big jumps and improvements.

“Arshad actually has a very simple and effective technique. He is a big guy and is very simple and consistent with his technique when he is healthy,” added the Reliance coach, who has over three decades of coaching experience in the US.

On the contrary, those who have followed the career of Neeraj in the pre-Tokyo 2020 era are well aware of how much emphasis the Haryana man puts on his technique. A crucial example came in 2019, when Neeraj requested a change of coach as he wanted to switch to the Athletic Federation of India’s (AFI) junior foreign throws coach Bartonietz Klaus from head coach Uwe Hohn.

The request stunned many, as Hohn is a respected name in the javelin world; he's the only person to go past the 100m mark (104.80) before the javelins were redesigned in 1986. However, what appealed to Neeraj about Bartonietz was the German’s immense knowledge of biomechanics. The combination, of course, went on to win every major title that was on offer for a javelin thrower.

Arshad, on the other hand, has spent most of his coaching years with his domestic coach Salman Iqbal Butt and had a few months’ stint with Terseus Liebenberg in Potchefstroom. And despite contrasting styles of throwing, coaching is pivotal to both.

"Power throwers are natural throwers, who are already throwing a good distance without much technique involved," said Canada's throws coach Rachel Andres. "They make a coach’s job tougher as you want to maximise the impact. The concern is not to lose out on too much power in correcting the technique.

"Technical throwers are more textbook and like to follow their coach's instructions to perfection to get the maximum. From their run-up to the release, everything is in the flow, like we see with Neeraj," added Rachel,  who is an NCCP performance coach in Canada.

That leads to the question of which method is the more effective one. Power throwers certainly seem to be at an advantage on a given day, but in the long run, technical ones seem to excel.

Consistent Neeraj

Looking deeper into the Neeraj-Arshad rivalry, the familiarity between the duo is much older than it appears, as they have faced off since their U-20 days, beginning with the South Asian Games in Guwahati in 2016. However, it never really existed as Neeraj finished ahead — and by a margin — for all of it until 2022. The Birmingham Commonwealth Games success for Arshad was the turning point, despite no face-off with an unfit Neeraj as a maiden 90m show put him in the big leagues. The rivalry only got bigger from there on as Arshad eventually eclipsed his Indian counterpart at the Paris Olympics after a close encounter at the 2023 Worlds.

Interestingly, Neeraj competed in 25 events since 2022, finishing among the top two in each of them with unparalleled consistency, while Arshad showed up at eight events during the same time frame, with focus largely on the big-ticket tournaments. For the Pakistani, funding understandably has been an issue, given the financial condition of the state, impacting other Olympic sports as well.

From that perspective, Germans and other European throwers, on the other hand, have the habit of competing in up to 10 events in a season, including the likes of Julian Weber, Johaness Vetter, Thomas Rohler, Anderson Peters (all power throwers), among others, but none have matched the consistency of Neeraj. 

Coach Rachel gave her keen insight on why Neeraj’s streak is unique while drawing comparisons with Vetter’s short-lived career, marred with injuries after a breakthrough 2020-21 season, which saw him throw as big as 97.76 and 96.29.

“Technical throwers are likely to have a longer career as their approach will not overburden their body,” said Rachel, who had a storied career as a student athlete in the US. “The same may not be the case for the power throwers as they put too much stress on their body, as was the case with Vetter back in 2022. For them, recovery days are as crucial as their training days.”

But does that make Neeraj a favourite to defend his title for the upcoming finale? Not on Weber’s watch at least, as the German has set the current world-leading attempt at 91.51, making the javelin final a likely three-way shootout for gold. One must not make the mistake of writing off Neeraj, especially with javelin great and coach Jan Zelezny by his side this time.

Neeraj Chopra (left) and Arshad Nadeem. AFP

Highlights - Neeraj Chopra (IND) - Reigning World Champion - PB & SB: 90.23m (NR) - Events won in 2025: 4 out of 7 Arshad Nadeem (PAK) - Reigning Olympic Champion - PB: 92.97m (In 2024 OR, AR, NR) - SB: 86.40 - Events won in 2025: 1 out of 1 Julian Weber (GER) - PB & SB: 91.51m (world leading - Events won in 2025: 9 out of 10 *PB: Personal Best, SB: Season Best, NR: National Record, OR: Olympic record, AR: Asia Record