Pakistan’s Arshad Nadeem Wins Gold Medal by Setting a New Olympic Record

Paris August 8 2024: Arshad Nadeem, who set an Olympic record of 92.97m with this second attempt to pull clear of the rest of the field, held on to secure the Olympic men’s javelin throw gold medal. Pakistan’s first Olympic medal winner since Barcelona 1992 ended the night with another gigantic 91.79m throw on his final attempt!

Even Nadeem’s last throw would’ve seen him break the Olympic record held by Andreas Thorkildsen of Denmark (90.57m in Beijing 2008) had it not been bettered by himself earlier in the final!

Neeraj Chopra fails to make it two gold medals in a row and despite the second-best throw of his career with 89.45m on his second attempt, it wasn’t enough to beat Arshad Nadeem of Pakistan who crossed the 90m mark twice and set a massive Olympic record.

The 26-year-old becomes the fifth two-time Olympic medallist from India after adding a silver to his Tokyo 2020 gold medal. Only Norman Pritchard, Sushil Kumar, PV Sindhu and Manu Bhaker have achieved the same with the latter claiming two bronze medals at Paris 2024 Olympics.

Two-time world champion Anderson Peters of Grenada took the bronze medal with a best attempt of 88.54m. He dislodged Jakub Vadlecjh of Czechia from the podium spots on his fourth attempt.

This is the first-ever individual gold medal in Olympics for Pakistan, maiden athletics and first gold in any discipline in the last 40 years.

Pakistan won an Olympic medal after the gap of 32 years. The last time Pakistan won an medal was in 1992 when the national hockey team clinched bronze by defeating the Netherlands 4-3 at the Barcelona Olympics.

Remember, six of the seven athletes the country sent were disqualified from their respective events.