Arshad finishes fifth, misses out on medal

The medal eluded Arshad Nadeem as the solitary Pakistani athlete at the World Athletics Championships finished fifth on the evening of July 23 in Eugene, Oregon.

The 25-year-old reached the final as he finished on the ninth spot in the qualifying on July 21, and became the first Pakistani athlete ever to achieve the feat.

He had been playing with an elbow injury that he picked before the Olympics while this was his first event since the Tokyo Games.

Arshad began the final as the underdog. Before throwing the spear on his first attempt, he screamed “Ya Ali Madad” to gain confidence as he ran to start his campaign in the final, but the throw was flagged.

Arshad was up against the best throwers. Grenada’s Anderson Peters was at his best even in his first throw that was 90.54m, eventually taking the gold medal as he produced another 90.54m throw in his sixth and final attempt. India’s Neeraj Chopra took the silver medal with 88.13m and Czech Republic’s Jakub Vadlejch bagged the bronze medal with a throw of 88.09m.

Arshad’s performance may not have secured him a medal but it was certainly progressive and showed more spirit than before.

He threw the spear at 75.15m on his second attempt. Warming up for the contest, he signalled the spectators to clap and cheer for him.

The youngster from Mian Channu, Khanewal then hit the 82.05m mark, but he was still not satisfied with the improvement and shook his head.

Arshad began his fourth attempt with the same request to the crowd to clap for him, and came up with his second-best performance of the career with 86.16m after which he seemed happy and raised his fist. Arshad’s career-best had been in Iran with 86.38m in 2021.

His 86.16m mark was also his best performance of the season and propelled him to the fifth place out of the top 12 throwers who were playing the final.

His fifth throw did not match his own expectations which landed at 83.63m in the penultimate attempt, while the sixth got red-flagged, even though Arshad was going all out for it.

Arshad bowed out of the championship on the fifth place much like his Olympics performance. This was his second appearance at the World Championships, first being in Doha 2019.

Arshad’s next two events will most likely be Commonwealth Games and Islamic Solidarity Games.