Pakistan’s top athlete Arshad Nadeem has been qualified for the final of the javelin throw competition in the Tokyo Olympics.
Arshad Nadeem is the first-ever Pakistani athlete to pass for the final of any field event in the Olympics.
He was placed in group B for the competition in which the athlete had to throw a minimum of 83.5m to directly qualify for the final. farthest throw.
In his first attempt, the 24-year-old athlete could reach the 78.5m mark but in the second attempt, Arshad broke records with a throw of 85.16m that also placed him on top of group B.
This was overall the third-best throw in the contest after India’s Neeraj Chopra (86.65m) and Germany’s Johannes Vetter (85.64m).
This is also Arshad’s third-best throw in a competition.
However, Arshad Nadeem is eyeing another win on Saturday alongside competitors India’s Neeraj Chopra and Germany’s Johannes Vetter.
Arshad had contracted Covid-19 in May while training in Turkey with Kazakhstan’s former international javelin thrower Viktor Yevsyukov.
He made his international comeback after the 2019 South Asian Games performance in April at the Mashhad Imam Reza Athletics Tournament in Iran and had created a national record, throwing a distance of 86.38m.
Earlier, Nadeem had told that he doesn’t regret leaving the country’s most popular sport for something like javelin throw.
“My older brother played cricket. Then my other brother played football and he was into the shot put too. But I took up javelin throw because I knew cricket involved too much. I know I couldn’t have survived because there is so much politics there, so javelin throw was something I liked. It suits my height,” said Arshad.
He had also shared that his cricketing heroes were former all-rounder Abdul Razzaq and former pacer Shoaib Akhtar.
“I was a good bowler, although I was an all-rounder, but bowling was great because I was tall and it worked,” said Arshad.
“Abdul Razzaq and Shoaib Akhtar used to be my heroes back then. I admired their game so much growing up.”
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