Arshad Nadeem eyes 95m mark next after winning gold medal with Olympic record

Arshad Nadeem of Pakistan has already set his next target after winning the gold medal in the javelin throw event at Paris 2024 by smashing the Olympic record.

The 27-year-old Arshad Nadeem became the first individual Olympic champion from Pakistan after registering a monster throw of 92.97m on his second attempt in the final at the Stade de France.

Arshad broke the previous Olympic javelin throw record of 90.57m set by Andreas Thorkildsen of Norway at Beijing 2008. The mark also set a new Asian javelin throw record.

He also produced another throw, his last of the evening, of 91.79m to outline his domination of the javelin field on Thursday.

Only content with breaking the Olympic record, Arshad has set his sights on achieving the 95m mark next.

“I was expecting and hoping to even go further but ultimately, I am content with 92.97m as it allowed me to win the gold,” he said after winning the gold medal in the final. “But I will continue working harder to extend this throw to over 95m.

“I credit my gold medal to my coach for helping me to be in top form at the Olympics.”

At the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, Arshad Nadeem finished fifth in the men’s javelin throw event with a best attempt of 84.62m. In comparison, he had three throws over the 88m mark in Paris, including two over 90m.

Neeraj Chopra of India, who finished second in Paris, won the gold medal at Tokyo 2020 with an 87.58m throw.

“I was fit enough to do well in Tokyo, but I could not perform well at the time,” Arshad said. “After the Olympics, I worked hard and won the gold at the Commonwealth Games. After that, I even tried harder to maintain my rhythm. And today, I won the gold for the country.”

Arshad Nadeem’s throw in Paris was a mammoth 3.52m better than defending champion Neeraj Chopra’s 89.45m, the Indian’s second-best career throw

The Indo-Pakistan rivalry is starting to shape in the javelin throw event. Neeraj and Arshad had also secured a 1-2 finish at the World Championships with the Indian pipping the Pakistani to the gold medal back then.

In the absence of Neeraj, Arshad also won the Commonwealth Games gold medal with a 90.18m throw on his fifth attempt. He became the first from South Asia to cross the 90m mark in this event. The two athletes also shared the podium at the Asian Games 2018 with Neeraj winning gold while Arshad settled for bronze.

“The rivalry was there, no doubt about that. People in each country were eager to see us both throw the javelin and beat each other. I am very happy to see Neeraj win the silver medal,” said Arshad.

Although Neeraj has a 9-1 head-to-head advantage in the rivalry, Arshad Nadeem has a better personal best, having now crossed the 90m-mark thrice.