From promising fast bowler to Olympics

KARACHI: The country’s premier javelin thrower and Olympics medal hope Arshad Nadeem has an interesting life story.

He was a good fast bowler of tennis ball and kept creating ripples at various levels during his early years of his life.

Until he got admission in the seventh class Arshad was an avid cricketer, impressive with the leather ball.

He had earned name in cricket in Khanewal district. It was when he was in the seventh class that he changed his mind and switched over to athletics after being inspired by his brothers Shahid Azeem and Shahid Nadeem who were into athletics.

People used to tell him that he had a good height and speed and could turn out to be a solid cricketer. But fate had decided something different for Arshad.

Unimaginable achievements in the athletics field has enabled Arshad to forget cricket. “Yes, definitely I missed cricket a lot and was not feeling well when I switched over to athletics as people used to tell me that I could turn out to be a good fast bowler. But now I have no regret. My achievements in athletics have enabled me to forget cricket,” Arshad told ‘The News’ in an interview.

“My teachers Zafar and Ajmal at school level looked after me properly and I performed at every level where I got chance in javelin throw,” Arshad said.

“When I performed well at division level sports officer Rasheed Ahmed requested our school sports teachers to allow him to train me. That was the turning point. I was properly looked after until I joined WAPDA,” Arshad recalled. “At that time there were no vacancies in PAF. I waited for some time and then vacancies came both in PAF and WAPDA and I joined the latter on the advice of Rasheed sahib and am still serving WAPDA,” Arshad said.

“In 2015 and 2016 I trained under different coaches. And finally I got the right man as a coach in the shape of Fayyaz Hussain Bukhari and he is still my coach. He is hard working,” Arshad said.

“In 2015 I featured in the National Championship for the first time and took gold. And since then I have been winning gold medals in javelin throw in the national events,” said Arshad.

Arshad shot to fame when he won bronze in the 12th South Asian Games in India in 2016. That pushed him to World No3 spot in the World Athletics Under-20 rankings.

The gold and silver medallists, who belonged to India and Sri Lanka, respectively, were at the top two positions.

Later the same year, Arshad won Asian Junior Championships bronze in Vietnam.

In 2017, Arshad clinched bronze in the Islamic Games in Baku, followed by a bronze in the 2018 Asian Games in Indonesia.

Arshad never looked back. He went on to set national record in the 33rd National Games in Peshawar before producing a huge throw of 86.29metre during the 13th South Asian Games in Nepal last year which earned him the most coveted berth in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

“It was a dream come true. I worked hard, believed in God Almighty and blasted my way into the Olympics,” Arshad said. “InshaAllah I will medal in Olympics,” Arshad said.