Nine years ago in Guwahati, Neeraj Chopra, barely out of adolescence, flung a javelin 82.23 metres into the future. A few paces behind him was Pakistan’s Arshad Nadeem, managing 78.33 metres and a bronze at the 2016 South Asian Games. Nobody blinked then. But what unfolded over the next few years was less about javelins and more about geopolitics, nationalism, optics, and outrage - in no particular order.

While India cheered the rise of a ‘superstar in the making’, Neeraj had no clue that his javelin would double up as a symbolic missile, hurled in every 'India vs Pakistan' sports headline for the next decade. They met again that year - Asian Juniors, then World U20 Championships - same result: Neeraj ahead, Arshad almost there, still polishing the edges.