KARACHI: Athletics Federation of Pakistan (AFP) has decided not to send the country’s premier javelin thrower Arshad Nadeem back to South Africa for his second training stint before the World Championship.
The AFP, rather, is now mulling an option to send him to the US a few days ahead of the World Championship slated to be held in Oregon, US, from July 15-25.
Arshad returned home late Tuesday night after undergoing training in South Africa for a couple of months along with fellow thrower Mohammad Yasir.
“He is not going back to South Africa,” the AFP Secretary General Mohammad Zafar told 'The News' on Wednesday.
“There is a visa issue and time factor is a big hurdle; we cannot send him back to South Africa. We are going to get a US visa for him and his interview has been fixed for June 1 and after that we will plan,” Zafar said.
“We are going to discuss whether we can send him by July 1 to the US so that he could train in that environment for a few days. Officially and as per the World Championship rules we can send him to the US by July 12 but we want to send him a bit earlier as we have scrapped the previous plan to send him back to South Africa after getting another visa for him,” Zafar said.
“This is not yet final but we will definitely work on this plan as it will be of immense importance if he goes a bit earlier to the US,” he added.
Zafar said that Arshad will now train in Lahore at the AFP official camp being backed by the Pakistan Sports Board (PSB), featuring 60 athletes.
“He will, like the previous phase, get advice virtually from his South African coach Terseus Liebenberg during his training at Lahore. He will also have the support of physio Dr Asad. He also has at his disposal gym facilities there and can also use WAPDA’s swimming pool which is of international standard. So he will get every kind of support,” Zafar said.
“I talked to Arshad in the morning today. He may spend a day or two more with his family before joining the camp,” Zafar said.
Before going to South Africa, Arshad had also trained for a couple of months at Lahore under the virtual guidance of Terseus Liebenberg, who will accompany Arshad during the World Championship in the US.
This will be the second time that Arshad will be featuring in the global affair. He made his debut in the major event in Doha last time.
Arshad told 'The News' upon his return that his training in South Africa went very well. "It was a nice training camp under Liebenberg who is a world class coach. He has great experience and the world’s major throwers are undergoing training at his academy. We passed through hectic training sessions, twice daily of aggregate four hours with a weekly off. It was great learning from him and I am satisfied with what I have learnt and will try to benefit from the experience in the coming events,” he said.
“I plan to leave for Lahore today to join the camp as I cannot waste time due to some major events ahead. I don’t know whether I will go back to South Africa as it will be decided by the federation but I personally think that going to the US a few days earlier will be of immense value for me ahead of the World Championship,” said Arshad.
He took everyone by surprise with his stunning fifth-place finish in the Tokyo Olympics. Besides eyeing a medal in the World Championship, he has in his plans winning titles at the Commonwealth Games and the Islamic Games.