Arshad sets sight on Asian Championships

KARACHI: After winning bronze medal in the Fourth Islamic Games, Pakistan’s premier javelin thrower Arshad Nadeem has set his eyes on the Asian Championships which will be held in India in June.

“I am happy with my performance in Baku and now I will begin training for the Asian Championships in the next few days,” Arshad told ‘The News’ hours after returning to Pakistan.

Arshad recorded a 76.80m throw to clinch bronze medal. Badar Ahmed Magour of Qatar clinched gold with an 83.50m throw. Ivan Zaytsevv of Uzbekistan claimed silver with a throw of 77.60m.

The Asian Championships will be held from July 6-9 at Vidisha, Indian city of Madhya Pradesh.Arshad said that after resting for a couple of days he would make his training plan. “Although proper camp for the continental event will begin from June 1, I will try to start focusing on my fitness level after discussing it with my coach,” he said.

Arshad last year secured bronze medals in the South Asian Games in India and Asian Junior Championships in Vietnam.A bronze in the South Asian Games had earned him the third place in the world in the IAAF Under-20 World Rankings.

Arshad said that he could have managed a better throw in Baku but his arm twisted in the last throw which affected his aim.

Arshad said that he had trained hardly for 20 days for the Islamic Games.“I went to Mauritius and after returning from there I had to feature in the National Championship in Karachi. And so I hardly got 20 to 25 days of training for the Islamic Games but I am happy. The result is not bad,” Arshad said.

About the Qatari who got gold, Arshad said he saw his throws and he did not impress him. “I saw him throw javelin. Neither was his run-up decent nor his style. But his top fitness enabled him to manage a better throw,” Arshad added.

About Pakistan’s overall performance in athletics, the 21-year-old said that it was not bad.“We had no such chance of a medal. In men’s relay we got silver. There were only five teams and two of them were good and so we were lucky to perform there. We had a medal chance in 400m hurdles but there we could not strike,” Arshad said.