Pakistan’s Arshad Nadeem throws Olympic file to defeat India’s defending champion Neeraj Chopra in javelin last.
Arshad Nadeem made historical past in clinching Pakistan’s first Olympic medal in athletics as he claimed gold within the males’s javelin on Thursday.
The 27-year-old, from Mian Channu within the Punjab province, beat defending champion Neeraj Chopra of India.
Nadeem threw his arms up in celebration after breaking the Olympic file on his second throw with a shocking 92.97 metres – one of the best on the planet this yr.
Chopra, comfortably forward in qualifiers and favorite to win, regarded off his greatest type. His better of 89.45 was additionally his solely legitimate try as he fouled on his 5 different makes an attempt.
Grenada’s Anderson Peters received bronze with 88.54, 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.
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 staff received 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 top of a protracted await his nation, drew response from far and extensive from Nadeem’s compatriots.
Pakistan males’s cricketer Fakhar Zaman mentioned the nation was “beaming with pleasure” in a put up on X, whereas Nadeem’s mentor and former coach, Rasheed Ahmad Saqi, was overwhelmed with feelings after his ward received 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.”