Arshad lifts gold in Asian Championship
By our correspondent
ISLAMABAD: Olympic champion Arshad Nadeem may not have delivered the performance many expected from him, but he still gifted Pakistan a gold medal—this time at the Asian Athletics Championships, which concluded in Gumi, South Korea, on Saturday.
Arshad clinched his maiden Asian Championship javelin throw title with a best throw of 86.40 meters. While he fell short of the championship record of 86.72 meters, set by Chinese Taipei’s Chao-Tsun Cheng in Doha in 2019, securing the gold was a much-needed achievement for the star athlete. This marked his return to competitive action after ten months, following his record-breaking gold medal performance at the Paris Olympics last year, where he stunned the world with a monumental throw of 92.97 meters.
India’s Sachin Yadav claimed silver with a throw of 85.16 meters, while Japan’s Yuta Sakiyama took bronze with an effort of 83.75 meters.
Arshad had a slow start in the 12-man final, managing just 75.64 meters on his first attempt. He gradually built momentum, improving with successive throws of 76.80m, 85.57m, 83.99m, and 83.44m, before unleashing his best throw of 86.40 meters to secure the gold. However, his body language suggested he wasn’t at his best.
While this performance may not reflect Arshad’s full potential as one of the most formidable javelin throwers in the world, the victory was an important stepping stone ahead of the World Athletics Championships—his primary target. The global event is scheduled to be held in Tokyo this September, where India’s Neeraj Chopra, the former Olympic champion, will defend his world title.
Arshad had previously won silver at the 2023 World Championships in Budapest. Ahead of his trip to Gumi, he had stated that he wouldn’t go all out but aimed to secure gold and, if possible, break the championship record. While the latter didn’t happen, he did accomplish the former.
Arshad was in top form in early 2022, setting new records at both the Birmingham Commonwealth Games and the Islamic Solidarity Games in Turkey within two weeks. He followed that with a World Championship silver in 2023 and then made history in Paris by becoming Pakistan’s first Olympic gold medalist in athletics.
Meanwhile, Pakistan suffered a major setback in Gumi when the country’s No. 2 javelin thrower, Mohammad Yasir Sultan, delivered a disappointing performance in the final.
Yasir, who had previously won bronze at the 2023 Asian Championships in Bangkok and had been throwing over 85 meters in practice, failed to come close to his personal best of 79.93 meters. He opened with 70.53 meters, improved to 75.39 meters on his second attempt, but his performance declined afterward. His subsequent throws were 74.50m, 72.92m, a foul (X), and 74.78m—well below expectations.
“Yasir’s body didn’t respond,” said his coach, Fayyaz Hussain Bukhari said from South Korea. “He even threw over 83 meters during warm-up today. But this happens. There are many technical factors involved, and we’ve learned a lot from this competition.”
“We’ll put this event behind us and move forward. I’m confident Yasir has a big throw in him, which he will deliver, InshaAllah, at the right moment,” Bukhari added. He also mentioned that other top athletes also failed to meet expectations at the event.