With his eyes set on winning a Gold medal for Pakistan at the Tokyo Olympics, athlete Arshad Nadeem will enter the Tokyo Olympic Stadium on Saturday night to compete in the Javelin Throw final.
Arshad Nadeem, a South Asian Games gold medalist and Asian Games bronze medalist, had qualified for this final after a 85.16-meter throw in the group stage on Wednesday. A release that gave the nation hope of ending the medal drought at the Olympics.
Now, Arshad is confident that he will live up to the nation’s hopes and win a medal for the country.
Arshad is among 12 contestants who will play in the final, which is scheduled to start at 4 pm [Pakistan time]. Each pitcher will have three pitches in the first leg of the final, after which four at the bottom will be eliminated from the medal race and the top eight will receive three additional pitches, with the best of their six being counted.
The 24-year-old Pakistani athlete is in ninth place in the order of players for the final.
Arshad’s 85.16 throw earlier in the Javelin Throw group stage was the best of his group, while in the group stage he was third overall with India’s Neeraj Chopra and Germany’s Johannes Vetter ahead. Neeraj had a throw of 86.65m, while Vetter threw the javelin 85.64m away.
He is regarded as one of the strongest contenders to win the medals, with his season and his personal best of 86.38, Arshad has been placed among the best athletes in the competition.
Only three athletes: Johannes Vetter (96.29 m), Neeraj Chopra (88.07) and Andrian Mardare (86.66) have a better season than Arshad. Mardare was able to shoot 82.70 away in the group stage, which was under 83.5.
It is worth mentioning that Arshad Nadeem is Pakistan’s national javelin throwing champion, undefeated since 2015. Over the past six years, he has broken his own national records seven times.
Pakistan has not won an Olympic medal since 1992. The last Olympic medal for the country, a bronze, was won by the Barcelona Hockey team. The last individual medal for Pakistan was won by boxer Hussain Shah in 1988.
