Pakistan celebrates its first Olympic medal in decades as javelin hero breaks Games record

Pakistan celebrated until quite a bit later after spear hurler Arshad Nadeem won the country’s very first Olympic-style sports decoration with a Games record toss of 92.97 meters to take gold in Paris.

The typically cricket-distraught country kept awake until late Thursday night to watch Nadeem secure Pakistan’s most memorable Olympic award since the men’s field hockey group won bronze in Barcelona a long time back.

“Our sibling has won the gold award and I’ve lost my voice since I’ve been praising the entire evening,” his sibling Shahid Nadeem told CNN on Friday from the family’s home in Mian Channu, in Pakistan’s Punjab state.

“When he returns home we will celebrate him so that the world will always remember! We are straightforward individuals and will celebrate with kheer (neighborhood rice pudding) and anything Allah gives us, we are blissful!” he said.

Individuals moved to drums in the city outside Nadeem’s home, and his mom told neighborhood outlet Geo News: “I am so blissful, what could I at any point tell you? I need to embrace him and kiss him. He has done right by Pakistan’s name, procured Pakistan a decoration, and made its banner fly gladly.”

Nadeem broke the Olympic record of 90.57 meters, set by Norway’s Andreas Thorkildsen at Beijing 2008, with his second toss that nearly made 93 meters.

Nadeem tossed his arms out of sight in the festival as the board affirmed the record-breaking toss, evoking heaves of wonder from observers.

“When I tossed the spear, I got its vibe leaving my hand, and detected it very well may be an Olympic record, inshallah (God willing),” Nadeem said later.

In winning gold, Arshad crushed India’s donning legend and ruling title holder Neeraj Chopra, who took silver with a toss of 89.45, in front of Grenada’s Anderson Peters, who tossed 88.54 meters for bronze.

The kinship between the main two medalists, Nadeem and Chopra, has opposed the memorable enmity among Pakistan and Indian donning groups. When the outcomes were affirmed the two embraced one another, their banners folded over their shoulders.

Win for the country

Pakistan is currently hanging tight for the second that Nadeem remains on the platform to accept his gold award — the country’s most memorable Olympic gold since its men’s field hockey group won in Los Angeles in 1984.

Pakistan sports writer Altamish Jiwa told CNN that Nadeem’s gold was a “humungous triumph for all of Pakistan” and one that had floated the country’s spirits.

“Nadeem has conveyed the ideal gift which the country has been sitting tight for a long while, the sensation of win and aggregate happiness which the nation has been denied of for a long time, on the wearing front, yet essentially in regular social status,” Jiwa said.

Nadeem completed fifth at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, with a toss of 84.62 meters, then won silver in the 2023 big showdowns, and turned into the principal competitor from Pakistan to arrive at the last of any Olympic-style sports occasion at the Olympic Games.

He has recently spoken about his hardships in contending on the world stage. He had no cutting-edge grounds or preparing offices in a country not known for its competitors in Olympic-style events.

Nadeem once tried to be a cricketer before getting a spear in 2015, portraying the choice as “the best thing that occurred” to him.

“I wouldn’t be in the Olympics in any case,” he said.

Cricket stands firm on an informal yet noticeable foothold as the public game of Pakistan, bringing about expanded financing and backing.

Nadeem’s success has moved a concentration from cricket to games in Pakistan and has started a conversation via online entertainment over the absence of assets for competitors contending globally.

Pakistan’s State head Shehbaz Sharif complimented Nadeem on his accomplishment, remarking on X, “You’ve made the entire country pleased young fellow.”