Indian javelin star Neeraj Chopra has withdrawn from the Silesia Diamond League 2025, scheduled on August 16 while Pakistan’s Arshad Nadeem is also absent from the official entry list for the meet in Poland.
The Silesia meet was expected to be the first Neeraj Chopra vs Arshad Nadeem face-off since their charged encounter at the Paris 2024 final, where Nadeem took the gold and Neeraj settled for a silver.
Neeraj and Nadeem’s participation was teased by the Silesia Diamond League event organisers in early July.
However, the high-profile clash was cast in doubt after Nadeem had to undergo surgery on his right calf in London last month.
The Pakistani ace, now in recovery, was already ruled out of the Silesia meet by his coach and expectedly doesn’t appear on the official men’s javelin throw entry list, which was revealed this week.
However, Neeraj has also opted to skip the meet in Poland. The reason for the Indian ace’s absence, however, is still not clear.
Neeraj has enjoyed a strong start to the 2025 athletics season.
He kicked off his season with a win at the Potch Invitational in South Africa before finishing second at the Doha Diamond League, where he breached the coveted 90m barrier with a massive 90.23m throw – a new national record.
The Tokyo 2020 Olympic gold medallist had to settle for a second-place finish again at the Janusz Kusocinski Memorial in Poland, but returned to winning ways at the Paris Diamond League.
Since then, he has logged back-to-back wins at the Ostrova Golden Spike in Czechia and the NC Classic in India.
Both Neeraj and Nadeem are targeting the World Athletics Championships 2025 scheduled in Tokyo, Japan, next month. At the last edition in Budapest two years back, Neeraj won gold ahead of Nadeem.
Before the World Championships, the Lausanne Diamond League on August 20 will be the last major athletics event which will feature men’s javelin throw. Both Neeraj and Nadeem were initially expected to compete there as well.