Karachi, August 4
Arshad Nadeem, who turned the primary ever Pakistani to qualify for the ultimate of a monitor and discipline competitors within the Olympics, may simply have been misplaced to cricket had it not been for his brother who satisfied him to take up athletics.
The 24-year-old who belongs to Mian Channu, a small city close to Khanewal within the Punjab province, was a gifted cricketer however having to work within the cotton and wheat fields didn’t go away him with sufficient time for the sport.
‘He was very athletic and robust and he couldn’t get sufficient time for cricket though he was an excellent all-rounder. I suggested him to take up athletics because it consumed much less time,” his brother, Afzal mentioned.
Mian Channu is known for fertile cotton and wheat manufacturing lands and has produced some worldwide stage cricket and hockey gamers, however Arshad determined to make his identify in monitor and discipline.
On Wednesday he went by way of to the ultimate of the javelin throw competitors which shall be held on August 7.
Arshad threw at a distance of 85.16 metres to qualify for the ultimate the place he shall be pitted in opposition to India’s Neeraj Chopra, the 2018 Commonwealth champion, who threw 86.65 metres along with his first try and Germany’s Johannes Vetter.
Nadeem is the primary Pakistani athlete in historical past to qualify for the ultimate of any monitor and discipline occasion on the Olympics.
“Arshad is in superb type proper now and he’s feeling very assured forward of the ultimate,” his brother mentioned.
Arshad, earlier than leaving for Tokyo, had mentioned in an interview that he by no means noticed what the opposite opponents had been doing and solely focussed on what he was doing.
He has already had a style for gold, having stood atop the rostrum eventually yr’s South Asian Video games in Nepal and he additionally took bronze on the 2018 Commonwealth Video games behind gold medallist Neeraj Chopra.
Regardless of the shortage of coaching amenities, worldwide publicity and weight loss program points, Arshad threw the javelin to a distance of 86.39m (his private bets) earlier this yr, setting a nationwide file throughout the Imam Reza championship in Iran.
In 2019, he threw 86.29m on the South Asian Video games in Nepal.
His coach, Fayyaz Hussain Bukhari, was the one who received him his first actual break, in 2015, when he received him a job within the water and energy board (Wapda), a authorities authority which is known for nurturing sports activities expertise for years now.
It was in 2015 that Arshad appeared within the Nationwide Championships and broke the nationwide javelin throw file to win gold. PTI
