Srinagar: Unknown in a Country where Cricket rules, the Pakistan’s new hearthrob Arshad Nadeem has received a hero’s welcome back home after returning from Paris Olympics 2024 with Pakistan’s first ever individual gold medal in history.
Arshad Nadeem is also set to be honoured with Hilal-e-Imtiaz by the country’s government. Hilal-e-Imtiaz is the second-highest civilian award given by the Government of Pakistan.
Arshad won javelin gold with a throw of 92.97 meters, setting a new Olympic record and surpassing Denmark’s Andreas Thorkildsen’s mark from Beijing 2008. India’s Neeraj Chopra bagged silver with a throw of 89.45 meters while as Grenada’s Anderson Peters secured bronze with a throw of 88.54 meters.
“The president will confer the civilian award to Nadeem in a special ceremony, recognising his distinguished services in the field of sports,” a statement from the Aiwan-e-Sadr said, as quoted by Geo News.
Following the failure to defend his gold medal, Neeraj expressed dissatisfaction with his performance and revealed that the last two to three years were not good for him in terms of fitness.
Speaking after the event, as quoted by Olympics.com, Neeraj said, “It was a good throw but I am not that happy with my performance today. My technique and runway was not that good. (I managed) only one throw, the rest I fouled.”
“(For my) second throw, I believed in myself to think I can also throw that far. But in javelin, if your run is not so good, you cannot throw very far,” added Neeraj.