Javelin star Arshad Nadeem ends Pakistan’s 40-year wait for Olympic gold

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Javelin star Arshad Nadeem ends Pakistan’s 40-year wait for Olympic gold​

Anushe Engineer
August 8, 2024

Arshad Nadeem at the Paris Olympics 2024 men’s javelin final at Stade de France, France, Paris, Aug 8. — Reuters

Arshad Nadeem of Pakistan celebrates with his national flag after winning gold as he stands next to a screen displaying his new Olympic record

Arshad Nadeem set a new Olympic record on Thursday and ended Pakistan’s 32-year wait for success at the Games by clinching the coveted gold medal in the men’s javelin final in Paris.

The Mian Channu-born was slow off the blocks, registering a no-throw on his first attempt of the night but shocked everyone on his second attempt, with a monstrous 92.97-m throw, which the rest of the field could not even come close for the rest of the competition.

Behind Nadeem on the podium was rival and reigning champion Neeraj Chopra, who also had a foul throw on his first attempt before eventually settling for a silver medal finish with an 89.45m throw on his second attempt.

Grenada’s Anderson Peters took home bronze, his first ever Olympic medal, with an 88.54m throw.

Nadeem’s throw was Pakistan’s first individual gold medal, first track and field medal and the second time a South Asian has had a podium finish in track and field.

It also shattered the previous Olympic record of 90.57m, set by the Netherlands’ Andreas Thorkildsen at the Beijing 2008 Olympics. The throw now stands as the sixth longest throw ever.

Tonight’s final ignited Pakistan-India rivalry that Nadeem and Chopra have kept alive over the years. Just last year, the duo went 1-2 as Chopra bagged gold and Nadeem took home silver at the World Athletics Championship

 

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At the opening ceremony of the Olympics on July 26 in Paris, Nadeem carried the Pakistan flag along with swimmer Jehanara Nabi.

“This is something straight out of a dream to be able to carry your country’s flag at the Olympics and a huge honour. But this is not the only thing for me. My main objective is to see my country’s flag being raised and the anthem being played if I get the gold,” Nadeem told Al Jazeera about a week before the Olympics began.

Among his competitors will be India’s Chopra, a now 27-year-old who has won seven gold medals. When they competed against one another at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, people on social media fanned the flames of the traditional rivalry between the South Asian countries and criticised Nadeem for being distracted and not winning a medal while Chopra won gold.

But Nadeem speaks fondly of his rival from India.

“Neeraj and I are on very good terms. Whenever we are abroad in training or an event, we always talk to each other and stay in touch, but when it comes to competition, then you only think of yourself,” the athlete explained. “Look, India is our neighbour. People on both sides say a lot of things about each other’s country, but this is what sports teaches us – to be friendly and that we don’t have to focus on our differences.”

He continued: “I know I have great rivals like Chopra or Peters or others, but ultimately, I compete against myself.”

 

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‘It was unbelievable,’ coach Salman Butt on Arshad Nadeem’s Olympic record throw​

Anushe Engineer
August 9, 2024

Arshad Nadeem celebrates with coach Salman Butt after throwing an Olympic record on August 8, 2024 at the Stade de France. — Reuters
https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VaMc238IiRov8okfYy3n
Salman Butt, the coach of Pakistan’s Olympic hero Arshad Nadeem, told Dawn.com on Friday that the athlete’s monstrous 92.97m throw in the javelin final was “unbelievable.”

Nadeem’s throw also shattered the previous Olympic record of 90.57m, set by the Netherlands’ Andreas Thorkildsen at the Beijing 2008 Olympics.

“I knew he had a big throw, but that was really surprising,” Butt chuckled.

“It’s like that guy said, this was ‘out of syllabus’,” an amused Butt told Dawn.com on Friday.

Tokyo 2020 gold medallist, India’s Neeraj Chopra, took home silver with an 89.45m throw on his second attempt, the only viable throw of the night among five foul throws.

Grenada’s Anderson Peters took home bronze and his first Olympic medal with an 88.54m throw.

Nadeem’s throw was historic across the board. It was Pakistan’s first ever individual gold medal, the first gold medal in 40 year and first Olympic medal in 32 years. He also became the first Pakistani to win a medal in Athletics, and the first Pakistani to hold an Olympic record.

The journey to Olympic glory was preceded by a tiring 72 hours, Butt said. It began with Tuesday’s qualifier round where Nadeem threw a season’s best throw of 86.59m to head into Thursday night’s final as fourth seed.

As his coach and manager in Paris, “we have technical things to take care of.

“We need to attend to his injury spot, correspond with his doctor, repeatedly administer massages, then relax his body,” Butt explained.

“Then we have to work on his strength, his speed.”

Butt had high praise for the accommodation he and Nadeem have been given in Paris at the Athletes Village.

“It’s a clean, pristine environment. These were good arrangements as far as Paris is concerned,” Butt said. “No complaints, all praise actually.”

 

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Arshad’s Olympic gold should be a watershed moment for sports in Pakistan​

A star is born​

Editorial
ugust 10, 2024

PAKISTAN’S hopes of returning with anything from Paris — most importantly, a first Olympic medal in 32 years — had rested squarely on the broad shoulders of javelin thrower Arshad Nadeem. And how he delivered.

With an Olympic record throw of 92.97m, the 27-year-old from a village near Mian Chunnu became Pakistan’s first-ever individual gold medallist at the Games. He made history in the French capital by winning Pakistan’s first Olympic gold since 1984, when the country’s hockey team triumphed in Los Angeles. It was the first medal of any colour since Barcelona 1992, when the hockey team bagged the bronze. Arshad’s feat, therefore, makes him arguably Pakistan’s greatest-ever Olympian.

Arshad had to take the hard route; he had to make do with substandard facilities and few funds, at one time even struggling to get a javelin. But at the Stade de France on Thursday, with the eyes of the world on him, he put behind the hardships and physical toll, having undergone surgeries on his elbow and leg in the last few years, to shine through and put Pakistan on top of the javelin podium. It was remarkable.

For an athlete whose international participation has been few and far between, who has struggled to regularly compete during athletics’ marquee Diamond League season, unlike the rest of the field, Arshad ended the contest on the biggest stage of them all with just his second throw, beating the Olympic record by some distance and leaving his rivals trailing. The universe seemed to have aligned for Arshad’s moment of magic, Pakistan’s moment of glory, the relentless pursuit of gold by a single man from a country of over 235 million coming to fruition. So how will Pakistan now preserve and boost its national treasure?

Cash prizes have been announced left, right and centre, but the question is: why did Arshad not receive this support when he needed the funds most — prior to the Games? Why does the country and its government wait for something to be achieved before springing into action? Why does it not strive to create these moments of national glory?

Arshad later pointed out the absence of world-class training facilities in Pakistan, and the fact that he had one camp in South Africa and only one Diamond League meet in the lead-up to the Games. This, despite the fact that Arshad had already proven his talent when he speared his way to the Commonwealth Games gold in 2022, before winning a silver medal at the World Athletics Championships last year.

Arshad’s gold should be a watershed moment for sports in Pakistan. It should force a rethink by the government and the sports authorities about how to better fund Pakistan’s athletes, because it is they who deliver the glory.

Published in Dawn, August 10th, 2024

 

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