On Thursday in Paris at Stade de France, Arshad Nadeem broke Olympic men’s javelin throw record to win the prestigious gold medal edging out Indian defending champion Neeraj Chopra into second place.
Nadeem’s 92.97 metres broke an Olympic record and became the highest among the planet’s twelve best throwers, while Neeraj had his best season with a mark of 89.45 meters in the final throw.
Neeraj referred to it as “Nadeem’s day” and congratulated the new men’s javelin champion but Pakistan was overjoyed by this Olympics accomplishment which ended up being their first since their hockey team got bronze back in 1992; actually, it is Pakistan’s maiden individual Olympic golden title and only ever medal for track and field events.
Bronze went to Anderson Peters from Grenada (88.54m).
Shoaib Akhtar couldn’t hide his happiness on social media, he shared a video message about it.
“From nowhere this boy has clinched an Olympic gold medal for Pakistan. What a player, Arshad! You have earned it all alone with your hard work and potential. Lots of congratulations for you my friend. Of course many congratulations for you people I mean all the country mood has changed with one gold medal on that one… The entire world trended about him – that is Arshad Nadeem,” said Akhtar in his video.
In another Instagram video posted by Pakistani Cricket Board, cricketers like Umar Gul or Sarfaraz Ahmad are seen jumping around after throwing the second of Arshad’s throws during final above 90m mark.
Shoaib also brought out some background story behind Nadeem including his recovery from injury where he mentioned ‘Rizwan’ who helped him get treatment done. However, it is not clear if Shoaib refers to Pakistan’s wicket keeper batsman, Muhammad Rizwan.
“Arshad Nadeem’s success has a story behind it that is about Rizwan and National Hospital… Not just in Pakistan, but also he was sent to England by Rizwan for surgery and now finally (Arshad wins gold)… So so proud of you Arshad…This is not one gold. There were seven athletes of Pakistan to be sent to Paris Olympics out of whom one won Gold all over the world at once such unexpected thing you have done that thrashed Olympic record throwing 90m (plus) throws (multiple times),” added Akhtar.
Interestingly, both Neeraj and Arshad finished on the podium at the Budapest World Championships as well. But Neeraj won the gold there and Arshad the silver. In Paris, their positions swapped with each other.
