Arshad Nadeem gets praised for an exceptional 90.18 meter Javelin Throw

Pakistan's Arshad Nadeem wins Gold for Record Breaking Javelin Throw in in Commonwealth Games 2022.

Around the same time as last year, Arshad Nadeem lost out on a medal in Olympics but won hearts. This year however, he managed to win both at Commonwealth Games (CWG), ending a 56-year medal drought in track and field for the country. Arshad stepped in the CWG without a coach and with a heavily taped throwing elbow due to an injury. Despite all the odds pitched against him, the 25-year-old who hailed from Mian Channu was resolved stand against fate.

Magical Throws

In the Commonwealth Javelin Games, Arshad Nadeem improved on his personal-best throw of 86.38m (in last year’s Olympics) thrice. In his first throw out of five, he managed to cover a distance of 86.61m, a tall target for others to beat.

His second attempt was deemed as a foul, but it lifted the morale anyways since the throw exceeded his first one and landed at 88m exact. Its worth mentioning that all of his efforts to throw ended with Arshad in immense pain and immediately reaching out to feel his right elbow, which he’s been nursing after last year’s Tokyo Olympics where he had finished fifth.

In his fourth attempt, he landed the javelin just beyond the 85-metre mark but with two rounds remaining. He was still in the lead. The penultimate round was when Arshad finally trailed, as Peters launched a Javelin to a massive 88.64m, this throw made it seem like the gold had slipped through Arshad’s finger.

However, in the final round Arshad performed nothing short of a miracle and sent the javelin flying over the sport’s ‘holy grail’ mark of 90m (90.18m exact), and won the gold medal, and the hearts of all the Pakistani people.

Record Breaking

By throwing a javelin to beyond 90m, Arshad became only the second Asian to cross that mark after Taiwan’s Chao-Tsun Cheng (91.36m). By going this, he also beat Indian star Neeraj Chopra’s Tokyo Olympic throw of 87.58m and World Athletics Championship throw of 88.13m.

Another Gold Medal

This is the second gold for Pakistan in Commonwealth Games 2022. Earlier, weightlifter Nooh Dastagir Butt had won the gold medal for Pakistan in the Commonwealth Games 2022 with a record lift of 405kg.