Arshad Nadeem Wins Gold Medal for Pakistan

Developereo said:
So you want to drop cricket and take up baseball?

As they say, baseball is just cricket with beer and hot dogs instead of tea and cucumber sandwiches, LOL.

On second thought, that's an excellent switch!

On topic, congrats to Arshad Nadeem and to Pakistan.
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Unlike cricket, baseball's governing bodies are not running a system of apartheid against player of certain ethnicity. So it will be a switch long in the making. Should have happened when Pakistani players were banned.
 
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SaadH said:
Why not? You are already a third tiered cricket country. No top four team plays with you. ICC with India's domination has already put a system of apartheid on your players and your country from hosting major tournaments.

There's no talent coming out of Pakistan and the compensation for player is on par with players from associate countries where cricket is not even known to the locals. On the whole, cricket is a dying sports only kept relevant due to Indians and their massive market.

In all other countries cricket is a third or fourth tiered sport and it's losing its popularity and relevance fast. It died in Kenya and Zimbabwe, pretty much dead in previous powerhouses like West Indies and South Africa and Pakistan. Only India, England and Australia take it seriously and try to compete.

You can't compete on the field either, can't win overseas in Tests and can't win an ICC tournament either. Might as well cut the losses and invest in sports that have a bigger global following and is likely to bring in more revenues than cricket.
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Pakistani fourth gen kids here in the UK hardly even play the sport anymore. The used to be parks full of kids playing cricket but now empty. Most go to boxing gyms, MMA gym, football etc.

It's had it's time.
 
ghazi52 said:

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javelin thrower​

Arshad Nadeem is one of seven athletes representing Pakistan at the Paris Olympics - and its biggest hope for a medal.

Pakistani javelin thrower Arshad Nadeem is a nine-time international medallist and four-time gold medallist [Muhammad Waqas/Al Jazeera]
By Abid Hussain
Published On 4 Aug 20244 Aug 2024
Lahore, Pakistan – On a balmy evening in August 2022 at Birmingham’s Alexander Stadium, the largest athletics grounds in the United Kingdom, a packed crowd was following the drama unfolding in the men’s javelin competition.

Arshad Nadeem, the Pakistani athlete, was preparing for his fifth and penultimate throw.

Moments earlier, Grenada’s Anderson Peters, a two-time world champion, had delivered a mighty 88.64-metre (291ft) throw, propelling himself to the gold medal position and pushing Nadeem down to second place.

Nadeem took hold of his bright yellow javelin and strode towards the beginning of his run-up, holding up his arms and clapping at the crowd, which cheered back enthusiastically.

Until Peters’s throw, Nadeem had led the competition, already surpassing the 85-metre (279ft) mark three times with his longest throw at 88 metres (289ft).

As the crowd’s clapping and cheering picked up, Nadeem, his throwing arm lined with pink therapeutic tape, took long strides before launching the javelin with a low grunt.

Beneath Birmingham’s pink and blue dusk sky, the spear soared through the air for about five seconds, then landed beyond the 90-metre (295ft) mark. The crowd roared as Nadeem held up his arms triumphantly, a gentle smile on his face before hugging a smiling Peters.

Shortly after, with no other competitor matching Nadeem’s record in their sixth and final attempt, his victory became official.

Nadeem’s throw was a new event record and also Pakistan’s first gold medal in track and field in six decades. He also became the first South Asian and only the second Asian man to surpass the 90-metre mark in the javelin throw.

Nadeem, now 27, calls that throw the best of his career so far.

“I was in good rhythm,” he recalled on a June afternoon after training. “I was confident [the earlier throws] would enable me to win the gold.

“Usually, by the third or fourth throw in any event, you have an idea who will emerge on top. Then Peters sent his fifth throw and went past 88 metres. But I was not nervous. By the grace of God, despite pain in my right elbow, I somehow managed to pull off my personal best,” he recounted.

Nadeem is Pakistan’s biggest hope for a medal in the 2024 Paris Olympics, which began on July 26.

The nine-time international medallist and four-time gold medallist came fifth at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. In Paris, he hopes to secure the country's first medal in 32 years after it won bronze in field hockey at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics.

“I feel strong and fit,” Nadeem said, “and quite hopeful of a strong performance in Paris.”


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It is unbelievable.
 
VCheng said:
The man with the golden arm!
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How hopeful and uplifting this must be at this moment in time for Pakistan.

Close Pak buddy of mine was over the moon about it all....just the feeling and hope this all gives when almost every other chip is down etc.

I don't think the value can be put in easy terms.
 
Nilgiri said:
How hopeful and uplifting this must be at this moment in time for Pakistan.

Close Pak buddy of mine was over the moon about it all....just the feeling and hope this all gives when almost every other chip is down etc.

I don't think the value can be put in easy terms.
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Exactly.

Even for me, just when there is no hope left, along comes a ray of such brilliant sunshine. Very uplifting, to say the least. It just makes me wonder just how fertile and full of talent and promise the people really are. If only ... ...
 
While the gold is, of course, an amazing achievement, we should not put too much pressure on him.

Elite athletes are already under extreme pressure to perform (there are horror stories of what they put up with) and the added strain of a whole nation looking at their every move can be a bit much.

The story of Nadia Comaneci is a cautionary tale.
 
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313Ghazi said:
our Governments (multiple) have never supported our athletes properly.
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PIA used to support squash players and we had some world class players. I think PIA was state-owned at the time (not sure).

PIA Sports

www.piac.com.pk www.piac.com.pk
 
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