I owe my gold to nation: Arshad Nadeem
"I thought I could go for a 95m throw," Arshad Nadeem exclaimed! As if his monumental feat of scoring 92.97m was not enough at the Paris Olympics javelin throw final at Stade de France on Thursday night.
The brilliant athlete ended the 32-year drought of Olympic medals for Pakistan and became the first-ever player from the country to win an individual gold medal at the Olympic Games.
His 92.72m throw in his second attempt was truly iconic - from the moment Arshad took the run-up to when he sent the spear to the record-breaking distance. His friend and on-the-field rival Neeraj labeled the results of the 'greatest competition in history, even though all of his own attempts except for the second were failed ones.
However, he managed to bag the silver with just one proper attempt covering a distance of 89.45 meters.
On the question of what Arshad changed from his last international outing in early July at his first Diamond League participation (where he threw 84.21 meters) to now, he replied that it was all the result of hard work.
"I want to congratulate the entire Pakistani nation," said Arshad when asked by this correspondent at the post-event press conference as to what his feeling were after the awesome feat. "If we look at it, I am very lucky that the Pakistani nation prayed for me so much. I know prayers are there for every individual but I feel like I am very lucky that I had so many people praying for me and the support of so many people was behind me."
"But like you asked how I performed in Diamond League and what was difference here there is a big difference," said Arshad.
"When I competed in Diamond League, I had a recent surgery conducted on my right knee, so trained accordingly to manage that.
"In the Diamond League, I was performing with a lot of caution because of my knee. Still, I feel I performed well. That performance gave me hope and encouraged me to do better in Paris," said the genial giant from Mian Chunnoo.
Arshad went on to add: "Then came the Olympics qualification and I got the job done in the first round. This was the second time I threw the javelin beyond the 86m mark. Before this, I had the same kind of throw at the 2022 Commonwealth Games.
"That was something that gave me hope, I thought I could do my best in the final and Allah would honour me. I managed it, I broke the record.
"There was the throw of 88 something (his third in the final which was 88.72m) in that where I withheld my arm a bit or else that throw could have gone to be nearly 95m.
Looking relaxed and fit, Arshad answered the media queries with a lot of composure and confidence.
"Alhamdullilah, I feel I have the capacity to do even better. But there is a lot of hard work, like the coach Salman Iqbal Butt and Neeraj bhai said.
"In the javelin throw athletes get injured a lot and doctors are very important, and I must add that Dr. Ali Sher Bajwa has really helped. We worked so much on our fitness. I am just very grateful."
Arshad further said that when it comes to technique and differences, he altered it a bit to do better. "I changed my technique, it has gotten better, and that is why my throw has improved too."
Witnessing Arshad making history at the Stade de France was surreal because even till mid-June Arshad had not been fully fit. He had picked an injury, a strain right before his [planned trip to Finland, where he was supposed to compete before the Diamond League meet in Paris. He also suffered another strain injury earlier this year and that too after his rehabilitation from the knee surgery in January.
Arshad had returned to training in February.
At the Olympics final he seemed more confident and hungry than before.
The breakdown of his attempts was fascinating, after a foul first attempt, but from the second he was unstoppable. He could have chosen to not throw at all after his second attempt with 92.79m.
But his third throw, which he mentioned he could have pushed to 95m had it not been an odd arm was 88.72 m, fourth being 79.40, fifth was 84.87, and he wrapped the event up with another beast of a throw sending his air-ripping javelin to 91.79 m and prostrated to show gratitude to Allah.
The fully packed stadium would go silent right before each of his throws and once he was done with the competition, Arshad genuinely looked relieved. However, the release of emotions finally came when he cried while hugging his coach Salman Iqbal Butt and others in the box.
That was followed by a victory lap which he seemed to have enjoyed as went across the track and rang the giant bell at the end of it.
None of the throwers had been able to touch Arshad on Thursday, with only Neeraj coming close. The real competition was for third place with Grenada's Anderson Peters grabbing it by a difference of four metres.
He threw 88.54m to Czech athlete Jakub Vadlejch's 88.50m.
After the press conference, the athletes were taken for the dope test and they stayed in the stadium till the wee hours.
The medal ceremony for the javelin throw final was scheduled for Friday at 7:00 pm local time here.
Later he was taken to the stadium for a ceremony and then to the Pakistan Embassy in Paris to celebrate his feat.
Arshad is a father of three and he has made his way through to this stage on the dint of sheer strength and strong will.
Last year, he made history for Pakistan when he became the first athlete from the country to ever win a medal at the World Athletic Championships.
He finished second to Neeraj in Budapest, but it was a result of steady work, because the year before he had missed the podium in Eugene, Oregon.
Meanwhile, the Commonwealth Games was another feat in which he pushed the envelope and excellence in the sport.
He broke the 90m barrier and vowed to win the world championship and break the record, while also eyeing the Olympics.
One must remember that Arshad had been competing with knee and elbow injuries till last year and it was in December that he finally received the treatment for his second knee injury. Before that, his left knee was badly affected.
Elaborating on his early days in sports at the press conference, Arshad said he wanted to become a professional cricketer and also tried his hand at every sport, from 100m and 200m sprint, to hammer throw, to long jump, shotput to playing kabaddi and football to finally settling on javelin throw.
"In javelin, I was lucky to have found a mentor in Rasheed Ahmed Saqi," he disclosed. "Later I was coached by Fiaz Bokhari and Terseus Leibenberg till the time Salman Butt took over right after the Tokyo Olympics," concluded Arshad.