LAHORE: Pakistan’s premier javelin thrower Arshad Nadeem, who has directly qualified for the Tokyo Olympics, on Friday left for Iran to take part in the Imam Raza Athletics Cup being held in Tehran on April 11-12.

Arshad’s coach Fayyaz Bukhari is also accompanying the 24-year-old athlete. From Iran, Arshad will go to Turkey to undergo three-week training under the supervision of Kazakhstan’s coach Victor.

Commenting on his upcoming visits, Arshad said the event in Tehran and training in Turkey would help him a lot gain a better position to do well in the Olympics.

The athlete set a South Asian Games record in the 2019 edition held in Nepal, throwing the javelin at a distance of 86.29 metres, to improve the previous record of India’s Neeraj Chopra (82.23 metres) who achieved it at the 2016 SAF Games. This feat enabled Arshad to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics as he became the first Pakistani to achieve this honour.

Arshad said he was already getting coaching tips from Victor online and now in Turkey he would work under Kazakhstan’s coach.

“Hopefully, the entire exercise will bring me in a better shape to earn gold medal for Pakistan in Tokyo,” the Pakistani athlete said.

Published in Dawn, April 10th, 2021