The entire country late Sunday hailed Arshad Nadeem for his historic Javelin gold medal at Commonwealth Games with a monstrous throw of 90.18m in Birmingham.
That brought Pakistan’s first athletics medal at the Games since 1966 and maybe a first javelin gold for the country since Mohammad Nawaz finished top of the podium at the inaugural edition of the quadrennial multi-sport spectacle in 1954.
What a superb performance from Arshad Nadeem!
He earns Pakistan their first track and field Gold after 60 years ????????, setting precedence with a new Games record.
Congratulations @NOCPakistan ????????#CommonwealthGames2022 | #B2022 pic.twitter.com/6H5YlKxeLg
— Commonwealth Sport (@thecgf) August 7, 2022
So who is Arshad Nadeem who went from being a relatively unknown figure to a famous athlete across the country in hours?
Born on January 2, 1997, Arashad Nadeem is a Pakistani athlete specializing in javelin throw. He represents WAPDA in domestic competition. In Dec 2019, he established a new South Asian Games record in javelin throw with a distance of 86.29 m, thus securing direct qualification for the 2020 Summer Olympics.
This made him the country’s only track and field athlete to qualify directly for the Olympics and the first Pakistani to qualify for the final of any track and field event at the Olympic Games. In 2022, he also became the first ever Pakistani to qualify for the final of any event at the World Athletics Championships.
Arshad Nadeem belongs to Mian Channu, a small city in Khanewal District, Punjab. He hails from an agriculturist family. He is the third-oldest among five brothers in a Punjabi family. His father is a building contractor.
Arshad was an exceptionally versatile athlete from his early school years. Though he dabbled in all the sports on offer in his school — cricket, badminton, football and athletics — his passion was cricket and he soon found himself playing it at district-level tape-ball tournaments.
Upon entering grade seven in school, Arshad caught the eye of Rasheed Ahmad Saqi during an athletics competition. Saqi had a history of developing sportspeople in the division, and took Arshad under his wing soon afterwards.
Before settling on javelin throw, Arshad also pursued shot put and discus throw. Gold medals in javelin throw in successive Punjab Youth Festivals and an inter-board meet propelled him on to the national stage, bringing offers from all the leading domestic athletics teams, including Army, Air Force and WAPDA.
He started competing in javelin throw events from 2015. In 2016, he received a scholarship from World Athletics which made him eligible to train at the IAAF High Performance Training Centre in Mauritius.
In May 2017, Nadeem won a bronze medal with a best throw of 76.33 meters at the Islamic Solidarity Games in Baku.
In April 2018, he set a new personal best of 80.45 meters in the qualification round of the javelin throw event at the Commonwealth Games held in Gold Coast, Australia.
In August 2018, he won a bronze medal at the Asian Games in Jakarta, Indonesia, where he set a new personal best and national record of 80.75m. He also sustained a back injury following the end of 2018 Commonwealth Games.
He made his debut appearance at the Olympics representing Pakistan at the 2020 Summer Olympics and became the first Pakistani track and field athlete to receive direct qualification for the Olympics.
His father stated that Arshad was not provided even a good training ground facility prior to competing at the Olympics. Arshad underwent training in his own house’s courtyards and streets and believed to have not received any financial assistance from Government of Pakistan after being qualified to participate at the Tokyo Olympics.
During July 2022, Arshad Nadeem participated in the 2022 World Athletics Championships in Eugene, Oregon, USA, as the sole representative from Pakistan. He secured 5th position with a throw of 86.16m, despite carrying an elbow injury. This was also his season’s best throw.
On August 7 2022, he won gold medal for Pakistan at the 2022 Commonwealth Games. Despite his injury, he made a games record with his throw of 90.18m, meanwhile also becoming the first South Asian to breach the 90m mark.
