Arshad secures javelin throw gold

KARACHI: Olympian javelin thrower Arshad Nadeem on Saturday won gold medal in the men’s javelin throw competitions of the 34th National Games being held at the Ayub Stadium Quetta. Arshad, also the 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games gold medallist, managed a 78.02 metre throw to snare gold for WAPDA. Arshad managed 77.20m in his first attempt, before recording 78.02 in his second attempt. He made foul in his third attempt. “I played with a plan,” Arshad told 'The News' after winning gold medal.

This was the first time that Arshad featured in a competitive event at any level since undergoing an elbow and left knee surgery in London a few months ago. Pakistan No2 Mohammad Yasir of WAPDA gave tough time to his senior teammate as he managed his personal best throw of 77.50m to finish with a silver medal.

Army’s Mohammad Imad, with a throw of 13.18m, claimed bronze medal. Yasir was trained by Arshad’s former coach Fayyaz Bukhari who has again shown a magic to enable his pupil to pull off a stunning performance.

“Yasir did well today,” Bukhari told 'The News' from Quetta where he is coaching WAPDA team.

“I now prepared Pakistan No2 and a back-up for Arshad. Yasir trained under me for two and a half months. He is now in the 80metre bloc and has the capacity to further improve. Now it depends on him when he comes to me to resume his training,” Bukhari said.

Bukhari was dropped as Arshad’s coach when Arshad finished fifth in the Tokyo Olympics. The decision of the Athletics Federation of Pakistan (AFP) shocked everyone around.

In the 20 kilometre men’s race-walk Qasim Faiz of Army claimed gold by clocking one hour, 55 minutes and 54.40 seconds of timing.

Army’s Nouman, with a timing of one hour, 56 minutes and 24.50 seconds, took silver while Adnan Moaz of PAF, with a timing of two hours, seven minutes and 25 seconds, claimed bronze.

The 800m gold went to Waqas Akbar of Army (1:54.5), Zaiwar Shah of WAPDA (1:55.3) got silver while Samiullah of HEC (1:57.0) finished with a bronze. Uzair Rehman of Army (46.70 seconds) got 400m gold, Abdul Moeed of PAF (46.80) got silver while Asad-ur-Rehman of WAPDA (47.60) clinched bronze.

Uzma of HEC snared the women’s hammer throw gold when she managed 40.01 metre, Army’s Saira Saleem, with a throw of 37.04m took silver while Army’s Bakhtawar, with a throw of 36.76m, clinched bronze medal.

The 100m hurdles gold went to Ghazala Rehman of WAPDA who clocked 14.7 seconds, Arooj Kiran of WAPDA with 15.8 seconds of timing claimed silver while Ramzana Bibi of HEC with a time of 16.2 seconds clinched bronze.

Isha Imran of WAPDA got 200m gold with a time of 23.3, Milhan Imtiaz of WAPDA took silver by clocking 24.5 seconds and Tameem Khan of Army with a time of 24.7 clinched bronze.

The 1500m gold went to Rabeela Farooq of Army with a time of 5.21:9, Farhat Bano of WAPDA with a time of 5.30:3 picked silver while Saba Yousuf of Punjab got bronze with a time of 5.42:5.

Amtul of HEC got long jump gold with 5:41m, WAPDA’s Faika Riaz got silver with 5:40m and WAPDA’s Beenish captured bronze with 4.91m.