Arshad Nadeem strikes gold in historic first for Pakistan
Sports
Arshad Nadeem shattered the Olympic record with a humongous 92.97m throw in Javelin final
Before Arshad's remarkable victory, Pakistan had never won an individual gold medal at the Olympics.
All of Pakistan's previous three gold medals came in field hockey, with their team winning gold in 1960, 1968 and 1984.
Since the 1992 Barcelona Games, Pakistan has not won a medal of any kind.
PARIS (Web Desk) - Pakistan’s Arshad Nadeem shattered the Olympic record with a humongous 92.97m throw in Javelin final to win the Gold medal at the Paris Olympics 2024 on Thursday.
Arshad Nadeem now becomes the first individual Olympic gold medallist from Pakistan. Arshad Nadeem broke the previous Olympic record of 90.57 - set in 2008 Beijing Olympics by Norway's Andreas Thorkildsen.
Neeraj Chopra came up with a season best throw of 89.45m to clinch silver. Grenada's Anderson Peters fetched the bronze medal with a throw of 88.54m.
Arshad Nadeem breached the 90-metre mark twice. One was 92.97m (second attempt) and the other was 91.79m (sixth and last attempt).
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
The last time Pakistan stood on the Olympic medal podium was on Aug 8, 1992, when the national hockey team defeated the Netherlands 4-3 to win a bronze medal at the Barcelona Olympics. This is the first Olympic gold for Pakistan in any discipline in the last 40 years.
Today, exactly 32 years later, Pakistan’s Arshad Nadeem created history by winning gold medal in javelin throw event.
Earlier, Arshad Nadeem was unable to make his first throw. Germany's Julian Weber also failed to make his first throw.
Finland's Lassi made his first throw with a distance of 78.81 meters, while India's Neeraj Chopra's first throw was invalid. Finland's Oliver Helander made his first throw with a distance of 80.92 meters.
The Czech Republic's Jakub Vadlejch made his second throw with a distance of 84.52 meters.
After him, Pakistan's Arshad Nadeem made his second throw, achieving a distance of 92.97 meters, setting a new Olympic record.
The previous Olympic record was 90.57 meters, set by Norway's Andreas Thorkildsen at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
Germany's Julian Weber made his second throw with a distance of 87.33 meters, while India's Neeraj Chopra made his second throw with a distance of 89.45 meters.
Arshad Nadeem made his third throw with a distance of 88.72 meters, while his fourth and fifth throws got 79.40 and 84.87 meters distance, respectively. In his last attempt, Arshad Nadeem hurled the javelin at a distance of 91.79m.
Nadeem was a gold medallist at the 2022 Commonwealth Games. He also won a bronze medal at the 2018 Asian Games. In the previous Olympics, Nadeem stood fifth with the highest attempt of 84.62m.
Arshad Nadeem was widely seen as Pakistan's top contender for a medal at the Olympic Games, and with his massive throw in the final, he clinched a historic gold medal.
Before Arshad's remarkable victory, Pakistan had never won an individual gold medal at the Olympics.
All of Pakistan's previous three gold medals came in field hockey, with their team winning gold in 1960, 1968 and 1984.
Prior to Thursday, only two Pakistan athletes had won individual medals of any colour – with a wrestling bronze in 1960 and a boxing bronze in 1988.
Since the 1992 Barcelona Games, Pakistan has not won a medal of any kind.
"When I threw the javelin, I got the feel of it leaving my hand and sensed it could be an Olympic record," said the 27-year-old Nadeem.
Nadeem, the 2022 Commonwealth champion who was fifth at the Tokyo Olympics and a silver medallist at last year's Budapest world championships, said the result was "very important for Pakistan because I have worked very hard over the years for this".
.jpg)
.jpg)
"My training and hard work have paid off."
The rivalry with Chopra "is there, no doubt", he added.
"Like cricket, the javelin rivalry was present! People back home in Pakistan and India were eager to see us compete together.
"Rivalry is there when it comes to cricket matches, other sports, the two countries have a rivalry, but it's a good thing for the young people in both countries to watch our sport and follow us.
"It's a positive thing for both countries."
Chopra agreed, saying it was good for both countries, and could act as a spur to attract more people to athletics, and javelin in particular.
Nadeem said he had big ambitions for throwing even further.
"I was expecting to go even further and I am hoping to go even further," he said after his new Olympic record beat his previous best by more than two metres.
"I will try harder to even extend my personal best to over 95 metres."
Chopra was satisfied with his best throw, but not much else.
"I'm not that happy with my performance today and also my technique and runway was not that good," he said.
"Only one throw, the rest I fouled. That second throw I believed in myself to think I can also throw that far. But in javelin, if your run-up is not so good, you can't go very far."
Chopra admitted to not doing much throwing in training because of a groin injury.
"The last two, three years were not so good. I'm always injured. I really tried hard, but I have to do some more work on my injury and technique.
"But I will work hard in the future. Today's competition was really great. Arshad threw really well. Congratulations to him and his country."
