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Late on Thursday night, Pakistan’s Arshad Nadeem surpassed India’s ‘Golden Boy’ and former Olympic champion Neeraj Chopra to clinch a gold in men’s javelin throw at the ongoing Paris Olympics. Chopra, however, entered the final after registering his season best of 89.34m in the Group B qualification round, but his Pakistani opponent surpassed his efforts to etch his name in history books, setting an Olympic record with his monstrous 92.97m throw at the Stade de France in the French capital.
Nadeem, who finished fourth at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics after struggling with injuries, came up with a sensational effort on Thursday night to breach go to the top of the standings and clinch Pakistan’s first-ever gold at the 2024 Paris Olympics in athletics. While his best effort came in his second attempt, he also managed to throw 88.72m, 79.40m, 84.87m and 91.79m, crossing the 90m mark twice.
Apart from this, Nadeem became first Pakistani to win gold medal in individual competitions in Olympics, he also broke the previous best Olympic record, which was etched at the 2008 Beijing Olympics by Andreas Thorkildsen of Norway. Earlier, he also became the first Asian to breach the 90m mark in javelin throw at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.
Watch Arshad Nadeem’s record breaking 92.97m throw at Paris Olympics:
While Nadeem took the gold, India’s Neeraj Chopra sealed the silver (89.45m) and Anderson Peters of Grenada took the bronze with his best throw of 88.54m.
