TOKYO: Pakistan’s Arshad Nadeem failed to win the Olympic medal and finished fifth in men’s javelin throw event in Tokyo today (Saturday) as India’s Neeraj Chopra claimed gold.
Nadeem’s javelin covered a distance of 82.91m in opening attempt of the final round and 81.98m in the second. His final attempt of the round and competition was a foul as he finished fifth.
His main rival, India’s Neeraj Chopra, saw both his attempts of the final round adjudged as fouls but his 87.58m throw in the opening round was good enough to get him the coveted gold medal.
Neeraj Chopra won the competition for India’s first-ever Olympic athletics gold. Chopra managed a winning best of 87.58 metres to go one better than India’s previous best: two silver medals won in the 200m and now-defunct 200m hurdles at the 1900 Paris Games by British-Indian Norman Pritchard.
Meanwhile, the Czech Republic filled out the podium at Tokyo’s Olympic Stadium, Jakub Vadlejch taking silver with 86.67m and Vitezslav Vesely claiming bronze with 85.44m.
‘Opening round’
Nadeem finished fourth in the opening round with a throw of 84.62 metres on his third attempt. India’s Neeraj Chopra topped the opening round with a throw of 87.58m.
In his first throw, Nadeem’s javelin covered a distance of 82.4 metres. India’s Chopra threw his to a distance of 87.03 metres. In the second throw, Chopra scored a distance of 87.58m, whereas Nadeem’s attempt resulted in a foul.
The third throw resulted in Chopra scoring 76.70m and Nadeem, who was in the ninth spot, moving up to fourth place after scoring 84.62m. Therefore, at the end of three rounds, Nadeem finished fourth and qualified for final round.
‘Olympics and medals’
Pakistan fielded 10 athletes in 2020 Tokyo Olympics and neither one of them was able to bag any medal for the country.
Pakistan has not won an Olympic medal since 1992. The last Olympic medal for the country was a bronze, claimed by the Hockey team at Barcelona. Before that, Boxer Hussain Shah had brought an individual medal home in 1988.
