Pakistan’s Arshad Nadeem throws Olympic document to defeat Bharat’s protecting champion Neeraj Chopra in javelin ultimate.
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 protecting champion Neeraj Chopra of Bharat.
Nadeem threw his fingers up in party then breaking the Olympic document on his 2nd throw with a great 92.97 metres – the most productive on the planet this 12 months.
Chopra, conveniently forward in qualifiers and favorite to win, appeared off his very best mode. His very best of 89.45 was once additionally his most effective legitimate aim as he fouled on his 5 alternative makes an attempt.
Grenada’s Anderson Peters received bronze with 88.54, a redemptive time for the two-time international champion then he did not form it to the general on the Tokyo Video games 3 years in the past.
Of Pakistan’s 8 earlier Olympic medals, six got here in males’s hockey and one every in males’s wrestling and boxing.
Nadeem’s success additionally marked the primary medal via Pakistan for 8 Olympics, with the latter medal coming in 1992 as the lads’s hockey workforce received bronze in Barcelona, Spain.
Males’s javelin throw ultimate was once BIG 🔥
🥇 92.97m OR Arshad Nadeem 🇵🇰
🥈 89.45m @Neeraj_chopra1 🇮🇳
🥉 88.54m Anderson Peters 🇬🇩 #Paris2024 #Olympics pic.twitter.com/jPrVZZ6txl— Global Athletics (@WorldAthletics) August 8, 2024
Pakistan ‘so proud’ of Nadeem
Two months ahead of the Olympics, Al Jazeera’s Abid Hussain spent a past with Arshad Nadeem as he ready for the Video games.
Again nearest, in June, Nadeem informed us he felt “strong and fit” for the arena tournament, including he was once “quite hopeful of a strong performance in Paris.”
The sector document throw left-overs with Czechia’s Jan Zelezny, who reached a notable 98.48 however the untouched Olympic document, together with the top of a protracted look forward to his nation, drew response from everywhere from Nadeem’s compatriots.
Pakistan males’s cricketer Fakhar Zaman stated the rustic was once “beaming with pride” in a put up on X, moment Nadeem’s schoolmaster and previous professor, Rasheed Ahmad Saqi, was once beaten with feelings then his ward received the gold medal.
“This is God’s miracle and a gift for the entire nation on our independence day next week. I’m just so proud of Arshad,” he informed Al Jazeera moments then the gold medal was once showed.
Saqi claims he was once assured that Nadeem would win a medal and had predicted it will be a gold.
“I had this belief that he will break some record. I was certain he will break his own record or Olympic record and that’s what he did.”
Pakistan’s High Minister Shehbaz Sharif additionally congratulated Arshad Nadeem on making historical past for the rustic.
He posted on X: “You’ve made the whole nation proud.”