World Athletics Championships: Arshad makes history, qualifies for final

Arshad Nadeem became the first Pakistani to qualify for the World Athletics Championships final as he pulled off his season-best 81.71m in Eugene, Oregon in the javelin throw qualifying round on the evening of July 21 in the US.

The Pakistanis watched him on the other side of the globe in the morning as the 25-year-old performed for the first time after the Tokyo Olympics.

Arshad has been recovering from an elbow injury but he had told The Express Tribune that he wanted to give his all on the field while he wants to win the medal at the championships.

This is Arshad’s second outing at the World Championships, after he last appeared in the event in 2019.

Arshad was placed in Group B of the event and he finished on the ninth place overall and qualified for the final that will take place on July 23 in the US.

Arshad’s first two attempts were 76.15m and 74.38m respectively.

Arshad had trained in South Africa for two months with coach Terseus Liebenberg for the championships and he is confident that his hard work will pay off with a podium finish.

The competition in Oregon saw Grenada’s Anderson Peters grabbing top place with a throw of 89.91m, ahead of Tokyo Olympics gold medallist Neeraj Chopra, who recorded an 88.39m throw. Germany’s Julian Weber secured the third sport with 87.28m and Czech Republic’s Jakub Vadlejch was the fourth best player with 85.23m.

The top four are the only athletes in the event to fulfil the qualifying score of at least 83.50m metre or more. The rest of the eight throwers including Arshad qualified for the final as they were the top 12 best performers.