Tokyo Olympics: Pakistan’s last hope for medal Arshad Nadeem to be in action tomorrow

KARACHI: Pakistan’s athlete Arshad Nadeem, the country’s last surviving athlete in the Tokyo Olympics, will be in action for group stages of the javelin throw competition on Wednesday. 

Arshad Nadeem directly qualified for the Olympic Games when he made a throw of 86.29m in the South Asian Games at Katmandu. His current world ranking is 23. However, his seasonal best, which is also his personal best - a throw of 86.38 - is one of the best ten throws of the season.

His medal-winning throw in Iran in April this year puts him at 7th among the top best throwers of the season.

He is placed in group B for the javelin throw competition and his event will start at 6:35am Pakistan time. Nadeem is placed alongside world number three Chao-Tsun Cheng and world number five Anderson Peters.

A total of 32 contestants are divided in two groups of 16 each. According to qualification criteria, athletes with a throw of minimum 83.50m or at least 12 best performers advance to the final.

Having a look at his performance and progress over the years, one can confidently say that Arshad is very much among the favourites to qualify for the final and if it’s his day, he can achieve a rare glory for the country.

Arshad is considered to be one of the finest javelin throwers in South Asia. He first came into the limelight in 2016 when he won the bronze at the South Asian Games in Guwahati, throwing the javelin for 78.33m, his first national record then.

He had also bagged a bronze medal for Pakistan in the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta, when he threw the javelin for 80.75m, another new national record for him.

In the world championship at Doha, Arshad improved further and achieved the 81.52 mark before further improving it at the national games in 2019, with a throw of 83.65m. In the South Asian games in 2019, he threw 86.29m, that also earned him a ticket to Tokyo.

In an interview prior to his departure, Arshad had set his eyes on achieving a 90m mark, a feat that can put him on the podium. In the 2016 Rio Olympics, Germany’s Thomas Rohler had won a gold medal with a throw of 90.30m.