Neeraj Chopra pulls out of Birmingham CWG due to groin strain
Birmingham(PTI): Star javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra has pulled out of the Commonwealth Games due to "fitness concerns", the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) announced on Tuesday.
Chopra had won a historic silver medal at the World Athletics Championship in Eugene on Sunday and suffered a strain in his groin during the competition.
IOA Secretary General Rajiv Mehta said the reigning Olympic champion has been advised rest for one month.
"Team India javelin thrower Mr. Neeraj Chopra had called me earlier today from the US to convey his inability to take part in the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games owing to fitness concern," Mehta said.
"Following his participation in the 2022 World Athletics Championships in Eugene, Mr. Chopra had had an MRI scan done on Monday and, based on it, he has been advised a month's rest by his medical team," Mehta added.
The 24-year-old had become only the second Indian athlete to win a medal at World Championship, after Anju Bobby George, who won a bronze medal in long jump at the 2003 World Championship held in Paris.
Chopra was expected to be India's flag bearer at the Games, starting Thursday.
"We have a meeting later in the day to decide the new flag-bearer," India team's chef de mission Rajesh Bhandari told PTI.
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US VP JD Vance says Lebanon not part of ceasefire, calls it ‘misunderstanding’
Budapest/Washington: US Vice President J D Vance has said that Lebanon was never included in the ceasefire understanding with Iran, describing the confusion as a “legitimate misunderstanding”.
Speaking to reporters before departing from Hungary, Vance said, “I think the Iranians thought that the ceasefire included Lebanon and it just didn’t. We never made that promise.”
He stressed that the United States had not included Lebanon in the scope of the ceasefire at any stage.
His remarks come amid continued Israeli strikes in Lebanon, where more than 200 people were reported killed, even as ceasefire talks between Iran and the US move forward.
Vance said Israel had “offered … to check themselves a little bit in Lebanon because they want to make sure that our negotiation is successful”.
He warned that if Iran allows the situation in Lebanon to affect the negotiations, it could derail the talks.
“If Iran wants to let this negotiation fall apart in a conflict where they were getting hammered over Lebanon, which has nothing to do with them and which the United States never once said was part of the ceasefire, that’s ultimately their choice,” he said.
