Karachi, Aug 9 (PTI) Chief Minister of Pakistan’s Punjab province, Maryam Nawaz, has announced a 10 crore (PKR) cash prize for javelin thrower Arshad Nadeem, who smashed the Olympic record en route an unprecedented gold in Paris, a remarkable turnaround for the athlete who had to seek crowd funding for a new javelin months before the Games.
Nawaz also said a sports city named after the athlete would be built in his hometown of Khanewal.
Nadeem has faced scarcity of resources and facilities that all non-cricket playing athletes face in the country.
Even after winning a Commonwealth Games gold and World Championship silver in 2022 and 2023, Arshad had to plead for a new javelin before the Paris Olympics as his old one had worn out after years of use.
Perhaps this is why Arshad’s first message to his parents from Paris on Thursday is that he is now determined to build a proper academy for athletes in or near his village.
“He was thankful to Allah for giving him so much glory and the one thing he said was that he hoped his olympic gold medal will now help in his endeavour to build a sports academy for athletes in his rural area,” his father Muhammad Arshad told PTI.
Nadeem has said recently that he would love to see proper academies for track and field athletes in Punjab because of the difficulties he faced as a javelin thrower and because of shortage of proper training facilities, coaching, funds and equipment for athletes in the country.
“Since last night we have not been able to catch a wink because there has been an endless stream of people and calls wanting to congratulate us and share our happiness and joy,” his father said.
Nadeem’s elder brother, who first encouraged him to become a javelin thrower, told PTI that there is lot of untapped talent in the rural areas of Punjab and Pakistan can find many other Arshad Nadeems if only there was focus on providing a platform for youngsters to show their talent.
“Traditionally, in many areas of rural Punjab the youth are physically very strong and well built and are willing to work hard for hours on end. They just need guidance. Hopefully my brother’s performance will change all that now,” Muhammad Azeem said.
His mother said that her son had kept his promise to her of winning the gold medal.
“I just pray he gets many more laurels for Pakistan,” Raziah Parveen said.
“I want to see many more Arshad Nadeems winning medals for Pakistan.” General (red) Muhammad Akram Sahi, who has headed the national athletics body for several years, hoped Arshad’s feat will help raise the profile of athletics in Pakistan.
“When Neeraj Chopra emerged he made a big impact in India for non cricket athletes and hopefully this will also happen in Pakistan,” he said.
Even as the country awaits Nadeem’s return on Saturday from Paris, the congratulatory messages and tributes have poured in from all quarters with the Pakistan Cricket Board also releasing special videos of their players hailing him.
Cash awards are also being announced with prime minister Shahbaz Sharif also posting a video of himself intently watching the javelin throw finals on Thursday night.
His feat has been best described by his coach, Salman Butt: “His record breaking throw was unbelievable and out of the syllabus.” PTI Cor PM PM PM
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