India’s golden boy from the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, Neeraj Chopra, saw his comments for Pakistani counterpart Arshad Needm being misinterpreted, leading to a huge controversy. While Neeraj himself explained the entire incident from the Javelin throw final at the Paralympics, Bajrang Punia has also shed light on the topic saying the athletes are like brothers off the field.
Speaking to Indian Express, Punia cited the example of the controversy involving Neeraj and Arshad. Though athletes battle against each other on the field, they have a brotherly bond off the field.
“Recently, there was an issue with Neeraj and a Pakistani thrower. On the field, we are rivals. Off the mat, we are all like brothers. In wrestling, we have to literally fight with each other and we have that drive to beat the other person. When we are off it, the atmosphere is nice and there is a lot of bonhomie.”
Giving his own example, Punia said that though wrestlers really have a go at each other on the mat, the moment the event concludes, they have nothing but compassion for their opponents.
“But after the event is over, we sit with them, develop a friendship. Bajrang, for you especially because you play a contact sport.” The wrestler replied there is a lot of bonhomie among the competitors once their bouts are over,” said Punia.
Punia was also full of praise for Neeraj, admitting that he go emotional seeing the javelin thrower’s training videos. While Punia has seen wrestlers and boxers training hard on their physical abilities because of the nature of the sport, he was moved to see Neeraj putting in the sort of effort he did en route to the Tokyo Games.
“I actually remember the first time I saw one of your training videos. I actually felt a bit emotional seeing it because I have not seen a lot of physical training like that in India… someone training at that level. It came across on my feed on YouTube and I saw it and I was just blown. You can just see the amount and effort and hard work that you put into your training…”, said the veteran wrestler.
