[Watch] Pakistan javelin thrower Arshad Nadeem starts his preparations for Paris Olympics 2024
Pakistan's top javelin throw athlete Arshad Nadeem was recently seen training hard with strength exercises under the watchful eyes of his coach from South Africa, Terseus Leibenburg, ahead of the Paris Olympics 2024.
Nadeem underwent knee surgery in February 2024 in the United Kingdom. He has now made his way back to the field with a different set of warm-up exercises to prepare himself hard for the upcoming mega event in Paris, as seen in the video posted by Khel Shel on X.
Notably, Arshad Nadeem secured a silver medal at the World Athletics Championships 2023 in Budapest with a throw of 87.82m and also clinched his spot for the Paris Olympics 2024. Interestingly, this was Pakistan’s first-ever medal at the mega world athletics competition.
The reigning Commonwealth Games champion Arshad had skipped last year’s Asian Games in Hangzhou, the People’s Republic of China, citing a knee problem.
Interestingly, in just over a year’s time, Arshad has flown to the UK for two surgeries, starting with a successful elbow surgery in December 2022.
Arshad Nadeem would be aiming to reverse Pakistan’s fortunes at the Olympics
Pakistan is yet to clinch a medal in athletics at the Olympics. With Arshad Nadeem being one of their top athletes and in good form, Pakistan would be aiming to have their first medal in athletics through javelin throw. At the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, Arshad settled for the fifth spot with a distance of 84.62m.
Covering a distance of 90.18m with his throw, the Pakistani javelin thrower created a record in the javelin throw discipline at the Commonwealth Games 2022 in Birmingham to clinch the gold medal. Indian javelin throw ace Neeraj Chopra skipped the event due to a groin injury.
Interestingly, it was only the second time that an Asian athlete went past the 90m mark. Chinese Taipei’s Chao-Tsun Cheng was the first to cover the distance of 91.26m with his throw at the 2017 World Underside, which remains the Asian record.
Neeraj Chopra’s personal best throw is 89.94m, achieved at the Stockholm Diamond League 2022. Chopra, who is the current javelin throw world champion, bagged the gold medal at the World Athletics Championships in Budapest 2023.