Nadeem luggage gold with an Olympic record-breaking throw of 92.97m to finish Pakistan’s 32-year medal drought on the Video games.
Pakistan’s Arshad Nadeem has made historical past by clinching the nation’s first-ever observe and discipline medal on the Olympics as he claimed gold within the males’s javelin last in Paris.
The 27-year-old dethroned defending champion Neeraj Chopra of India and broke the Olympic file on the Stade de France on Thursday.
Nadeem threw his arms up in celebration after breaking the Olympic file on his second throw that landed at a surprising 92.97 metres – the very best on the planet this yr.
Chopra, comfortably forward in qualifiers and favorite to win, seemed off his greatest kind. His better of 89.45 metres was additionally his solely legitimate try as he fouled on his 5 different makes an attempt.
Grenada’s Anderson Peters gained bronze with 88.54 metres, a redemptive second for the two-time world champion after he did not make it to the ultimate on the Tokyo Video games three years in the past.
Nevertheless, the evening belonged to the standard man from Mian Channu, a small city within the japanese Punjab province, who got here again from a knee damage early this yr and made historical past for his nation regardless of the dilapidated athletics services within the cricket-mad nation.
Of Pakistan’s eight earlier Olympic medals, six got here in males’s hockey and one every in males’s wrestling and boxing.
Nadeem’s achievement additionally marked the primary medal by Pakistan for eight Olympics, with the final medal coming in 1992 as the boys’s hockey workforce gained bronze in Barcelona, Spain.
Males’s javelin throw last was BIG 🔥
🥇 92.97m OR Arshad Nadeem 🇵🇰
🥈 89.45m @Neeraj_chopra1 🇮🇳
🥉 88.54m Anderson Peters 🇬🇩 #Paris2024 #Olympics pic.twitter.com/jPrVZZ6txl— World Athletics (@WorldAthletics) August 8, 2024
Pakistan ‘so proud’ of Nadeem
Two months earlier than the Olympics, Al Jazeera’s Abid Hussain spent a day with Arshad Nadeem as he ready for the Video games.
Again then, in June, Nadeem instructed us he felt “sturdy and match” for the world occasion, including he was “fairly hopeful of a powerful efficiency in Paris”.
The world file throw stays with Czechia’s Jan Zelezny, who reached a outstanding 98.48, however the brand new Olympic file, together with the tip of a protracted watch for his nation, drew response from far and extensive from Nadeem’s compatriots.
Pakistan males’s cricketer Fakhar Zaman stated the nation was “beaming with satisfaction” in a submit on X, whereas Nadeem’s mentor and former coach, Rasheed Ahmad Saqi, was overwhelmed with feelings after his ward gained the gold medal.
“That is God’s miracle and a present for your complete nation on our independence day subsequent week. I’m simply so happy with Arshad,” he instructed Al Jazeera moments after the gold medal was confirmed.
Saqi claims he was assured that Nadeem would win a medal and had predicted it will be a gold.
“I had this perception that he’ll break some file. I used to be sure he’ll break his personal file or Olympic file and that’s what he did.”
Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif additionally congratulated Arshad Nadeem on making historical past for the nation.
He posted on X: “You’ve made the entire nation proud.”
