Pakistani javelin thrower Arshad Nadeem created history at the 2024 Summer Olympics. After missing a throw in his first attempt the athlete made everyone’s jaw drop by creating a throw of 92.97m creating a new Olympic record of the year. On 9th August at the final of the javelin throw he not only created a record for himself but also became the first-ever athlete of Pakistan to get an individual gold medal. The previous reigning champion Neeraj Chopra tried his best but missed his four attempts and couldn’t find a way of suppressing Nadeem’s record. Let’s check out the key details of this story.
Neeraj Chopra settled for Sliver after being surpassed by Arshad Nadeem
Setting a high standard for his competitors Arshad Nadeem with his second attempt to reach that standard wasn’t easy for his contemporaries. Despite making his season-best throw of 89.45 meters the previous champion Neeraj Chopra failed four of his attempts making Nadeem who crossed the 90 mark twice unbeatable.
Chopra hadn’t been defeated by Nadeem in their ten previous encounters. However, after Nadeem’s magnificent throw which is the sixth-longest in history gold slipped away from Chopra’s hand.
Stepping aside the agony, Chopra has also made his mark in history in his own way. He became the first Indian track-and-field athlete to win two consecutive Olympic medals back-to-back. With his glorious silver win, India earned their 5th medal in the prestigious event.
The Pakistani champion who is struggling to acquire a new javelin in March 2024 proved that with talent and hard work, anything can be possible.
The former champion Neeraj even at that time also made a heartfelt plea to provide his friend with proper facilities.
At that time, Nadeem told the media, “It has now got to a stage where the javelin is damaged and I have asked the national federation and my coach to do something about it before the Paris Olympics. When I started off in 2015, competing in international events, I got this javelin… for an international athlete aiming to win a medal in the Olympic Games, you need proper equipment and training facilities.”
After getting to know about Nadeem’s struggle that time’s reigning champion Chopra requested proper facilities for the incredible talent, “Arshad is a top javelin thrower, and I believe that the javelin makers will be more than happy to sponsor him and provide what he needs. This is a piece of advice from my side.”
Congratulations to the new champions for beating all odds.
