At the Commonwealth Games, Pakistan’s Arshad Nadeem bowed out after winning a gold medal in record-setting fashion, ending a 56-year streak of not winning a medal in track and field.
According to the report of the news agencies published in Dawn newspaper, it is of great importance, it is unbelievable, against all odds, that Arshad, who entered the field without his coach and with an elbow taped due to injury, on Sunday evening. He won the javelin throw final at the Alexander Stadium with a throw of 90.18 meters.
He achieved the distance in his fifth throw and came out on top in a competition that included world champion Anderson Peters, former Olympic champion Keshorn Walcott and former Commonwealth Games champion Julius Yego.
This is Pakistan’s first athletics medal at the Games and the country’s first gold medal in javelin since 1966, four years after Muhammad Nawaz won silver at the inaugural edition of the Games in 1954 and Jalal Khan in 1958. Got the second position.
It was Pakistan’s second gold medal in Birmingham and the first gold was won by Noah Dastgir Butt in the 105 kg weightlifting competition.
Like Pakistan’s Noah, Arshad had high hopes of winning a medal at the Games and showed his dangerous ambitions with his first throw.
He bettered his personal best three times that evening and threw 86.61 meters in his first attempt.
A foul made no difference in his second attempt as Arshad once again improved on his best performance with a perfect 88m throw.
However, at the end of each attempt, Arshad would experience sharp pains and the 25-year-old felt severe pain in his right elbow, which he has been suffering from since last year’s Tokyo Olympics, where he finished fifth, last month. He also finished in the same position in the World Championship.
Arshad’s fourth throw was just over the 85m mark but two rounds were still to go and the Pakistani star was in the lead.
Before the final round, Arshad was finally overtaken by Peters with a throw of 88.64 and he started celebrating as if this throw would be enough for his victory but his joy was short-lived. The medal was to be won by Arshad and he crossed the ‘holy grail’ mark of the sport with a throw of 90 meters, becoming only the second Asian to cross the mark after Taiwan’s Chao Soon Cheng (91.36 meters). He also broke South Africa’s Marius Corbett’s Games record of 88.75 meters which he had set in 1998.
Peters, who won the gold medal with a throw of over 90 meters at the World Championships in Oregon, tried to overtake Arshad with his final throw but failed to do so, winning the silver medal with a throw of 85.70 meters. Kenya’s Yago bagged the bronze medal with the throw.
