Gold for India, silver for Pakistan in the World Athletics Championship. Very few could have imagined even two years ago that there would be a day when the 1-2 will have an Indian and a Pakistani on the podium.

Neeraj Chopra and Arshad Nadeem did just that in Budapest on Sunday night.

It has rekindled hopes of the famous Indo-Pak rivalry on the sporting field. Amid Pakistan’s continued struggle in hockey and India’s refusal to play bilateral cricket against their neighbours — they meet in multi-team tournaments — the rivalry somehow lost its spark. But the javelin duel promises to rekindle it.

Neeraj though preferred to play down such suggestions.

“I don’t use the mobile phone before competitions but I just checked just for a brief period and saw that it was being billed as India versus Pakistan rivalry. But if you look at the sport, the European athletes are very dangerous and at any moment they can throw big,” Neeraj said at a news conference in Budapest.

The times that we live in would demand both the athletes to go at each other but it’s unlikely they would take the bait. They share a great camaraderie that was reflected after the javelin event. When Neeraj called him to celebrate, Nadeem joined the winner and bronze medallist Jakub Vadlejch for a photo session.

Neeraj was also effusive in praising his rival. “Was happy that Arshad had a good throw (87.82 metres). When we met (after the event) he was happy that both countries are growing in javelin.”

Gurbux Singh, 1964 Olympic Games gold medal winner and former India hockey captain, doesn’t see a fierce rivalry between the two javelin throwers. “They are good friends,” he told The Telegraph on Monday. “But this is something we never thought of. We always had this idea that our rivalry revolves around hockey and cricket,” he said.

“The scar of Partition was yet to heal during our playing days so it used to be tension-filled. In the 1964 Olympic Games as well as the 1966 Asian Games finals, both of which we won, there were 20 Punjabis on the field. Eleven on the Pakistani side, nine on our side. So you can imagine how fierce the competition was,” Gurbux added.

Qamar Ahmed, a senior Pakistani journalist, agreed. “Javelin is a one-off contest and both India and Pakistan have not had such rivalry in the past in athletics. So it cannot be taken with the same enthusiasm as hockey or cricket rivalry.”

But then Milkha Singh’s rivalry with Abdul Khaliq is still talked about. But soon the Flying Sikh zoomed past his Pakistani rival and became the best in Asia.

Zafar Iqbal, former India hockey captain, said since javelin is an individual sport, both Neeraj and Nadeem would have to deal with pre-match pressure in a different way. “In a team game like hockey, you have people to talk to but in individual sport, the athlete will have to face the music himself. That is the biggest test for them.”

For now, the focus will be on the Asian Games where the duel will resume. “There will be more pressure at the Asian Games. For the time being, I would like to take it easy,” Neeraj said.