Pakistan’s Arshad Nadeem throws Olympic report to defeat India’s defending champion Neeraj Chopra in javelin remaining.
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 report on his second throw with a shocking 92.97 metres – the very best on the earth this 12 months.
Chopra, comfortably forward in qualifiers and favorite to win, seemed off his finest kind. 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 gained 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 gained bronze in Barcelona, Spain.
Males’s javelin throw remaining 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 told us he felt “sturdy and match” for the world occasion, including he was “fairly hopeful of a powerful efficiency in Paris.”
The world report throw stays with Czechia’s Jan Zelezny, who reached a exceptional 98.48 however the brand new Olympic report, together with the top of an extended look ahead to his nation, drew response from far and vast from Nadeem’s compatriots.
Pakistan males’s cricketer Fakhar Zaman stated the nation was “beaming with satisfaction” in a publish 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 pleased 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 might be a gold.
“I had this perception that he’ll break some report. I used to be sure he’ll break his personal report or Olympic report 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.”
