Arshad showing marked improvement, says coach

KARACHI: Fayyaz Hussain Bukhari, coach of javelin thrower Arshad Nadeem, on Friday said that Arshad has shown marked improvement during the last three months training at Lahore for preparations of the Tokyo Olympics.

“During this training Arshad did his best in speed, endurance and strength. And he is also making his technique better day by day,” Fayyaz told ‘The News’ hours before leaving along with Arshad to Iran where the country’s Olympics medal prospect will feature in an international event in Mashhad.

“As a coach it’s my duty that I share my views with athletics family and I also want to tell something about Arshad’s training,” Fayyaz said. “At South Asian Games in Khatamandu in December, 2019, we pulled off an 86.29 metre throw. And at that time we were training in camps and we were in good shape. When we returned from Khatmandu athletes were sent to China for training for some days,” Fayyaz recalled. “They lived there for almost 25 days as their tour was cut short due to outbreak of Covid-19. After some days we started our training in Lahore Coaching Centre. But after one month our training stopped due to Covid and for almost one year we stayed at our home. Then due to honourable General Akram Sahi’s struggle we again started our training in Lahore Coaching centre on December 28, 2020. The only purpose of telling this is that for one whole year we were not training at any place,” Fayyaz said. “And Arshad was training at his home by taking advice from me on phone. It means that we were not able to maintain 86.29m throw,” Fayyaz said.

“We will try to sustain our throw. Honourable Salman Butt Sahib called me on phone and said that we will be going to Iran for the event. He advised me to shape Arshad according to this competition. And from that day I started releasing Arshad’s load. For taking Arshad in 80-85 percent training load we needed three and a half months for releasing this load. But for Arshad we did this immediately,” Fayyaz said.

After featuring in Mashhad’s event Arshad will move to Turkey for a three-week training under the World Athletics coach Viktor.

Arshad created history when he became the first athlete in the country’s athletics history to qualify for Olympics with an amazing 86.29m throw in the 13th South Asian Games in Nepal near 2019-end.