As Arshad Nadeem wins Olympic gold, his town rejoices
Dozens of locals watched strong javelin thrower Arshad Nadeem compete in the Olympic Games final late Thursday night in front of his home. His farming village near Mian Channu, Punjab, streamed the event live on a truck-mounted screen using a digital projector. The people cheered thousands of kilometres away when Nadeem’s javelin set a new Olympic record and won a gold medal in Paris. “He made history with his throw. Muhammad Azeem, 35, Nadeem’s brother, stated, “We’re proud of him.
After he won, men danced to a drum and clapped and screamed slogans. In Nadeem’s home, the women clustered around a small TV. “He promised me he would play well, go abroad, win a medal, and make Pakistan proud,” declared his mother Raziah Parveen. Nadeem won Pakistan its first Olympic gold medal in 40 years despite practicing with dilapidated equipment and limited access to gyms and training grounds. Mian Channu it is. He comes from a small village and raised the Pakistani flag internationally “Rashid Ahmed, Nadeem’s former coach, discovered his talent.
The third of eight siblings, 27-year-old Nadeem is the son of a retired construction worker and was captivated to cricket like other Pakistanis. “I made Arshad switch from playing cricket to javelin at a time when no one knew what it was,” claimed Arshad’s older brother Shahid Nadeem. “He took that stick to the Olympics, set a record and won gold,” he told AFP as the family rejoiced. Their struggles to acquire Nadeem proper training were described by retired local sports administrator Parvaiz Ahmed Dogar to AFP.
The athletes utilised wooden sticks with ropes as javelins. “Those wouldn’t land on the tip,” Dogar recalled. Pakistan lacks a track and field stadium, therefore athletes train on cricket fields. The only javelin Nadeem owned was damaged and had been used for seven years, he confessed in March. Nadeem told media after his win that the hardship was worth it. “When I threw the javelin, I got the feel of it leaving my hand and sensed it could be an Olympic record,” stated.
