Pakistan's Premier Javelin Thrower, Arshad takes 6th spot in 23rd Asian Athletics Championship
Premier Javelin Thrower of Pakistan, Arshad Nadeem finished on the 6th position among ten other participating nations in the 23rd Asian Athletics Championship which successfully concluded at Khalifa International Stadium in Doha, Qatar.
2018 Asian Games bronze medalist, Arshad Nadeem, recorded 73.33m, 78.55m and 77.36m in his first three attempts before missing the fourth. He inked 78.29m in his fifth throw before missing the sixth. The winners in Arshad's category stood, Chinese Taipei’s Cheng Chao-Tsun (86.72m) won gold medal, Shivpal Singh of India (86.23) claimed silver medal and Ryohei Arai from Japan settled for bronze medal with a throw of 81.93m.
Meanwhile, Olympian Mehboob Ali finished last (eighth) in the final of the 400m hurdles with 50.94 seconds timing. Young Sheroz Khan failed to qualify for the final when he finished 18th in the high jump qualification round with a two-meter jump. Sheroz ended ninth in Group A qualification round carrying 11 athletes. The qualifying standard for final had been set as 2.22m.
Arshad Nadeem is a 2018 Asian Games bronze medalist Javelin Thrower who started training at his hometown in Mian Channu to prepare for the Asian Athletics Championships 2019 to which he had said, “I have been training on regular basis for the last ten days at Mian Channu’s Primary School pitch. But let me make it clear that this is not the level of training through which I could fight in the Asian Championships. I don’t have the sort of equipment which is needed for quality training. There is no camp so I thought I should do something on my own to keep myself fit. I work on the program which is given to me by my WAPDA coach, Fayyaz Hussain Bukhari,”
Athletics Federation of Pakistan (AFP) did send 5 of its best athletes to take part in this mega international event but the federation already warned that not all of the sent athletes were fully prepared to participate as despite of the several requests by the Athletics Federation of Pakistan (AFP) for sponsoring a camp, Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) did not support the five athletes.
The five member squad included 3 male athletes, only one female and they are accompanied by their coach: 2018 Asian Games bronze medalist, Arshad Nadeem from WAPDA, sprinter, Uzair of Army, former Olympian, Mehboob Ali also from Army, high jumper belonging to WAPDA, Shehroz and sprinter Sahib-e-Asra also from WAPDA.
