Arshad Nadeem created history on Thursday (August 8) by becoming the first Pakistani athlete ever to win a gold medal in the Olympics. The 27-year-old managed to finish ahead of Tokyo Olympics gold medallist Neeraj Chopra and world champion Anderson Peters of Grenada to bag the yellow metal in the men’s javelin throw event. Nadeem broke the Olympic record in his second attempt by touching a distance of 92.97 m, which was enough to seal him a top-place finish.
After Nadeem entered his name in history books, former Pakistani cricketer Shoaib Akhtar took to X (formerly Twitter) to share a picture of Nadeem and write a one-word caption, which is now going viral on the internet.
The former pacer, who holds the world record for bowling the fastest delivery in cricket history, referred the champion athlete as “Shehzadaaa.”
Nadeem started the men’s javelin throw final as one of the favourites, but little did anybody know that he would break the Olympic record and do the unthinkable. In fact, he twice breached the 90-meter mark in the final to become the first player in Olympic history to achieve the feat.
Neeraj finished second after registering a throw of 89.45 m in his second attempt, and Peters bagged bronze.
After securing a historic win in the French capital on Thursday, Nadeem, who also won a gold medal in the 2022 Commonwealth Games, expressed his happiness and said he will continue to work hard and extend his throw to 95 m in the future.
“I was expecting and hoping to even go further, but ultimately I am content with 92.97m as it allowed me to win the gold. But I will continue working harder to extend this throw to over 95 meters.”
He also opened up about his rivalry with Neeraj and said he was happy to see him finish second.
“The rivalry was there; there was no doubt about that. People in each country were eager to see us both throw the javelin and beat each other. I am very happy to see Neeraj win the silver medal.”
