Arshad Nadeem stuns with Olympic record, wins javelin gold

Pakistani javelin thrower Arshad Nadeem has won his country's first Olympic medal since 1992 after an Olympic record throw of 92.97 meters.

In doing so, Nadeem becomes the first athlete from Pakistan to ever win an Olympic gold medal in an individual event.

The feat prompted praise from Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, who said: "You've made a whole nation proud young man." 

'We will all celebrate together'

"On August 14, we are going to celebrate our Independence Day, and this is a special gift to the nation from me," Nadeem said when asked by DW what the medal means to him and Pakistan. "We will all celebrate this medal together when I'm back in Pakistan."

Of his record effort, Nadeem said: "When I threw the javelin, I got the feel of it leaving my hand, and sensed it could be an Olympic record."

Nadeem set the record with his second throw of the night, and nobody else could get close to him after that.

India's Neeraj Chopra, Nadeem's nearest challenger, failed to defend his Olympic title. Five of his six throws were fouls, and the one valid one was more than 3 meters shy of Nadeem at 89.45 meters. 

"I'm not that happy with my performance today," Chopra said. "But the last two or three years haven't been so good. I was always injured. I really tried hard, but I have to do some more work on my injury and technique."

Anderson Peters of Grenada took the bronze medal, while Germany's Julian Weber, who had dreams of bettering his fourth place at the Tokyo Games in 2021, could only manage sixth place.

"They weren't the throws I wanted," a visibly disappointed Weber told reporters afterwards. "I was capable of much more. I was in the best shape ever, and so I'm sad I couldn't show what I was able to throw.

"I'll keep on going," Weber added when asked by DW where he goes from here. "I will be better next time."

Good conditions, strong field, long throws

It was a high quality final. The top five throwers all would have won the gold medal in Tokyo with their efforts on Thursday.

"After qualification, it showed that we were all in really good shape," Weber said. "The conditions are really good here. It was a crazy competition."

The Olympic record had stood since the 2008 Beijing Games, when Andreas Thorkildsen of Norway threw 90.57 meters on his way to defending his Olympic title.

Nadeem, who won the Commonwealth Games title in 2022, finally got one over on Chopra. He finished second to his Indian rival at the most recent world championships in Budapest last year.

Before Nadeem, Pakistan had never won Olympic gold or silver in individual events. The country's previous Olympic medal came at the Barcelona Games in 1992 in field hockey, with Pakistan's all-time haul now at 11 medals, four of them gold. 

Edited by: Mark Hallam