Srinagar: Pakistan’s Golden boy in athletics, Arshad Nadeem shattered the long standing Javelin Olympic record to claim a historic gold medal in the Paris Olympic 2024 on Thursday.
Arshad made a throw of 92.97-meter in his second attempt which was enough for him to secure gold medal.
Pakistan’s first Olympic medal winner since Barcelona 1992 ended the night with another gigantic 91.79m throw on his final attempt.
Even Nadeem’s last throw would’ve seen him break the Olympic record held by Andreas Thorkildsen of Denmark (90.57m in Beijing 2008) had it not been bettered by himself earlier in the final.
This is the first-ever individual gold medal in Olympics for Pakistan, maiden athletics and first gold in any discipline in the last 40 years.
Pakistan won an Olympic medal after the gap of 32 years. The last time Pakistan won an medal was in 1992 when the national hockey team clinched bronze by defeating the Netherlands 4-3 at the Barcelona Olympics.
Meanwhile, India superstar Neeraj Chopra, who was defending his gold, made a throw of 89.45 and bagged the silver medal. Grenada’s Anderson Peters fetched the bronze medal with a throw of 88.54m.
Neeraj Chopra fails to make it two gold medals in a row and despite the second-best throw of his career with 89.45m on his second attempt, it wasn’t enough to beat Arshad Nadeem of Pakistan who crossed the 90m mark twice and set a massive Olympic record.
The 26-year-old becomes the fifth two-time Olympic medallist from India after adding a silver to his Tokyo 2020 gold medal. Only Norman Pritchard, Sushil Kumar, PV Sindhu and Manu Bhaker have achieved the same with the latter claiming two bronze medals at Paris 2024 Olympics.
Athletes’ Best Throw at Javelin Throw Final
1- Arshad Nadeem (Pakistan) — 92.97m
2 – Neeraj Chopra (India) — 89.45m
3- Anderson Peters (Grenada) – 88.54
4 – Jakub Vadlech (Czech Republic) – 88.50
5 – Julius Yego (Kenya) – 87.72
6- Julian Weber (Germany) – 87.40
7- Keshorn Walcott (Trinidad and Tobago) – 86.16
8 – Lassi Etelatalo (Finland) – 84.58
9 – Oliver Etelatalo (Finland) – 82.68
10- Toni Keranen (Finland) – 80.92
11 – Luiz Mauricio (Brazil) – 80.67