“I do focus on what I have in front of me. When I was home, my family was my focus. I had put on four to five kilograms and my coach was really worried because he thought it would take more than two months for me to even get into shape. However, I promised him that he will see the results sooner and in less than three months, I was peaking in form again, which is when we thought of bettering the record,” said Arshad.

Pakistani javelin thrower Arshad Nadeem quickly became the talk of the town after throwing his javelin 85.16m to secure direct qualification for the final.

In the history of Pakistan’s athletics, Arshad Nadeem became the first to qualify directly for the Olympics. He achieved direct entry by throwing a distance of 86.29m at the South Asian Games in December 2019. Nadeem also secured a South Asian Games record with that attempt.

Arshad Nadeem is different from most of his competitors in the field. Most of them have had access to world-class training facilities and instructors abroad. On the other hand, most of Arshad’s training has taken place in Pakistan. He’s coached by Fayyaz Bokhari locally.

Arshad Nadeem, a young father of two, had to focus on his family when he was home during the COVID-imposed restrictions. As a result, he had become overweight and had to lose up to five kilos before he could return to serious training. It took him less time than what his coach had estimated though.