Arshad wins bronze at Asian Junior Athletics

KARACHI: Pakistani athlete Arshad Nadeem on Monday won bronze medal in the 17th Asian Junior Athletics Championship being held at Ho Chi Minh city in Veitnam, a senior official of Athletics Federation of Pakistan (AFP) said.

“Yes, Arshad got bronze in javelin throw,” AFP secretary Mohammad Zafar told ‘The News’ from Lahore.The exact statistics of Arshad’s effort could not be known. “He has recorded over 73 metre,” Zafar said.

The 19-year-old athlete from WAPDA achieved fourth rank in the world recently in the IAAF Under-20 world rankings when he threw javelin 78.33 meters at the South Asian Games in India, which was his debut event.

Zafar hoped that Arshad would become the world’s leading athlete. “He has the guts and has proved that in the Asian Junior Championship today and the South Asian Games in India. I am confident he will turn out to be a great asset for the country,” Zafar said.

He said the AFP would send Arshad to Poland for the World Junior Athletics Championship to be held from June 19-26. “The AFP president Maj Gen (retd) Akram Sahi is in Vietnam and during the Asian Athletics Association (AAA) meeting he will meet the top athletics officials of various countries and try to create opportunities of foreign training for our budding athletes,” Zafar said.

“We are waiting for information about triple jumper Mohammad Afzal who had a completion today. Afzal is also a good athlete. We will try to provide the best training to both of them,” the official added.

Afzal clinched gold in the Asian Youth Championship in Qatar last year.Mohammad Yasir (javelin), Bilal Sadiq (4x100m), Mohammad Shahbaz (100m) and Laeeq Naveed (100m) are also part of Pakistan’s touring party.