Yasir wins silver, fails to qualify for Olympics

LAHORE: Pakistan’s No 2 javelin thrower Mohammad Yasir Sultan on Saturday claimed silver medal in the Asian Throwing Championship in Korea but he failed to qualify for this summer Paris Olympics. Yasir managed a throw of 78.10m to finish with silver medal.

He needed a throw of 85.50m for Olympics qualification. He was even short of his personal best throw of 79.93m which he achieved in his bronze medal winning feat in the Asian Championship in Bangkok last year. Yasir’s throws break-up is 71.71m, 71.03m, 75.43m, 77.13m, 78.10m and 76.83m.

The gold in Mokpo went to Sri Lanka’s Rumesh Tharanga who managed his personal best throw of 85.45m which means he finished just five centimetres short of his Olympics qualification. This was also Games record and Sri Lanka’s national record. Sumedha Ranasinghe of Sri Lanka with a throw of 77.57m ended with a bronze medal.

Yasir’s coach Fayyaz Hussain Bukhari was still happy with Yasir’s throw. “I think it’s not bad as heavy wind was blowing and conditions were not easy for throw,” Fayyaz told The News from Mokpo.

“Yasir has improved a lot and he has a major throw in him and he will definitely manage it sometimes in future as we are to work harder in days to come,” Fayyaz said. He also thanked Athletics Federation of Pakistan (AFP) for providing them an opportunity.

“I am thankful to the AFP for gifting this opportunity and in future too we will keep top effort to do something miraculous for the nation,” Bukhari said.

After having failed to qualify directly for the Paris Olympics now Yasir will need to finish in the top 32 in the world when World Athletics will release world rankings after June 30 which is the Olympics qualification timeline.

The rankings in between July 1, 2023 and June 30, 2024 will be released after June 30. So far only ten javelin throwers from across the world have directly qualified for the Paris Olympics.

Pakistan’s premier javelin thrower Arshad Nadeem has already qualified for the Paris Olympics during the World Championship in Hungary last year where he got silver medal.