BUDAPEST: Star javelin thrower Arshad Nadeem made history on Sunday as he clinched a silver medal, at the World Athletics Championship in Budapest, Hungary. This was Pakistan’s first-ever medal in the tournament’s history.
Arshad Nadeem secured the silver with his best throw in his third attempt which went at a distance of 87.82 meters.
Meanwhile, his Indian counterpart Neeraj Chopra bagged India’s first gold medal at the World Athletics Championship with an 88.17m throw in his second attempt.
Arshad started things slowly with a 74.80m throw in his first attempt, however, he made a sounding comeback with an 82.81m throw in his second attempt.
His aforementioned third throw, proved to be his best in the season, going as far as 87.82 meters, while his fourth attempt could only go at 87.12m.
His fifth and sixth attempts failed to breach Neeraj Chopra’s 88.17-meter mark, hence settling for a silver.
History-maker
Arshad Nadeem becomes the very first medallist ever for Pakistan in the history of the #WorldAthleticsChamps
🥇 @Neeraj_chopra1 🇮🇳
🥈 Arshad Nadeem 🇵🇰
🥉 Jakub Vadlejch 🇨🇿 pic.twitter.com/N3N12VIiCN— World Athletics (@WorldAthletics) August 27, 2023
Prior to that, Arshad Nadeem on Friday secured his place for the final of the World Athletics Championship in Budapest, as well as, the Paris Olympics in 2024.
Arshad Nadeem started off the qualifying round of the javelin throw event with a 70.63m throw in his first attempt, while in his second attempt, he threw his javelin at a distance of 81.53 meters.
However, the Automatic qualifying mark for the final of the World Athletics Championship was 83 meters, while the benchmark for the Paris Olympics was 85.50 meters.
Arshad Nadeem breached both benchmarks in his third attempt with an amazing 86.79-meter throw, consequently qualifying for both events.
It is worth mentioning that Arshad Nadeem was declared fit for the World Athletics Championship earlier this month by the medical board, after being ruled out of the Asian Athletics Championship, due to an injury to his left knee.