Tokyo Olympics 2020: Neeraj Chopra wins gold in javelin throw and Arshad Nadeem wins hearts of Pakistanis
Pakistan's Arshad Nadeem has also failed to end the 29-year-old Pakistani wait to win any medal at the Olympics, finishing fifth overall in the javelin throw event.
India's Neeraj Chopra not only won the first gold medal for India at the Tokyo Olympics, but also became the second Indian to win an individual gold medal at the Olympics.
Neeraj Chopra won the gold medal by throwing the javelin at 87.5 meters. The silver and bronze medal winners in this event are from the Czech Republic.
In the final round of the Tokyo Olympics javelin throw, Arshad Nadeem competed against 12 athletes, including world number one Johannes Waiter of Germany and Asian Games and Commonwealth Games champion Neeraj Chopra of India.
When Arshad entered the final round, he was ranked fourth among the 12 athletes in terms of his best performance of the year.
Arshad Nadeem did well but threw his first throw 82.4 meters away, his second throw was fouled while his third throw reached 84.62 meters. With this third throw, he finished fifth out of 12 athletes.
Forty-four-year-old Arshad Nadeem could not break the stalemate of not winning an Olympic medal that had existed for 29 years. Pakistan last won an Olympic medal at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics when the hockey team, led by Shahbaz Ahmed, won a bronze medal.
This year's best performance of Arshad Nadeem was 86.38 meters which he showed in the competition held in Mashhad, Iran.
Arshad Nadeem had qualified for the final round by throwing a javelin 85.16 meters in the qualifying event of the Tokyo Olympics on Wednesday. Was the third position.
Rs 20 million spent on Arshad's training: Akram Sahi
President of Pakistan Athletics Federation Major General (Retd) Akram Sahi said that the federation has spent Rs 20 million on the training of Arshad Nadeem.
Speaking to BBC Urdu, Akram Sahi said, "Most people think that access to the Olympics is only the result of Arshad Nadeem's individual performance and the federation is not involved in it."
"Of course, Arshad Nadeem has his own hard work, but people should also know that the Pakistan Athletics Federation has also worked tirelessly to ensure his training and participation in the Olympics."
Akram Sahi says, "If it was just a matter of individual performance, Pakistan has been participating in the Olympics since its inception, so the results should have come out long ago."
Akram Sahi says that Arshad Nadeem could not go to the Olympics because the federation did not even have the money for his training but I took personal interest and made his training possible with the help of sponsors etc.
"We have spent Rs 20 million in the entire process of this training. I have been saying for the last several years that this young man has extraordinary talent but at that time no one cared who was Arshad Nadeem and which Olympics?
Akram Sahi says that the situation of Kood also affected the training of Arshad Nadeem. When we set up camp for them in Lahore, which included their coach Fayyaz Hussain Bukhari, there was a time when we were told that due to the cod situation, they could not even stay in the hostel, so we had to accommodate them. Had to make arrangements elsewhere but Arshad had to be sent to his house for a few days.
"Once, due to the arrival of a VIP helicopter, the ground was closed and Arshad was stopped from training."
Akram Sahi says that the Pakistan Olympic Association has suspended the Pakistan Athletics Federation while at the moment the Athletics Federation is the most prominent among other sports in terms of performance.
He is most angry that his federation has been suspended, but instead a parallel committee for athletics set up by the Pakistan Olympic Association has been headed by a serving brigadier.
Akram Sahi, vice-president of the Asian Athletics Federation and chairman of the South Asian Athletics Federation, says, “The Pakistan Athletics Federation has to spend about Rs. I get Rs. 35 lakhs in Mad.
This time out of this, Rs 500,000 was given less whereas last year only Rs 2 million was given. No one is ready to answer why this was done.