Rise of Pakistan’s Arshad Nadeem: From lack of funding to buy javelins to becoming the world’s best at Paris 2024

Salwar kameez and early winters. That’s what the coach Rasheed Ahmad Saqi remembers about his first meeting with the Paris Olympics champion javelin thrower Arshad Nadeem.

“It was early winters in 2011 and a young Arshad had come to the Municipal Stadium in Mian Channu to compete in the divisional athletics meet. He was more than six feet tall and I was impressed by the way he threw the 600-gram javelin. When I asked him, why didn’t you compete in a tracksuit, the 13-year old said, “School di chutti si te, main edha hi a gaya (It was a school holiday and I came like this only),” Saqi recalls to The Indian Express.

Nadeem refers to Saqi as his “spiritual father”. A former javelin thrower with a Punjab inter-college record in the early 1970’s, the 69-year old Saqi is the additional secretary with Punjab Athletics Association (Pakistan) and president of Khanewal District Athletics Association.

Saqi would run a restaurant Shalimar Hotel in the Mian Channu town before he became an athletics official. Visits to Sialkot, a city famous for sports goods industry, would result in Saqi bringing discus and javelins for the village competitions. It was then that Saqi’s eyes fell on the 13-year-old Arshad winning. The next day, Arshad’s father Muhammad Ashraf who works as a mason in the village, requested him to coach his son. With the village having a Government Model School ground apart from the Municipal Stadium, Saqi would coach Arshad in javelin as well as discus at the stadium, where mainly football and hockey matches on grass were held.

Arshad Nadeem with his coach Rasheed Ahmad Saqi. (Pic credit coach Rasheed Ahmad Saqi )

“I remember in his village, Arshad would get a bamboo stick fitted with bent iron pieces at the front ,made from a local ironsmith, and train at the school ground. He would sometimes slip too due to sandy patches,” says Saqi.

The environment would also produce Arshad’s action where he doesn’t do the falling routine like Neeraj Chopra and many others do. “While his height was the advantage at such an early age, it also created problems as he was heavily built. I had to make him practice the straight throws as the falling motion would result in fractures. And since he has long arms, I would make him practice the 20-27 degree angle for the throws,” Saqi says. The pair worked on getting Arshad to make better use of his elbow and upper body.

The main challenge at the local stadium or at the school was that his throws would often land outside the small ground or the athletics area in the stadium. “In 2013, when we took him to Multan for a divisional meet, he threw more than 50m and the officials ran out of the tape used for the junior competition. A person sitting besides me would say, “Es jane ne tan tape hi muka ti (This youth has made the tape end),” laughs Saqi.

Saqi shares another incident from the Punjab Youth Festival in 2014 in Lahore where Arshad would first set his foot on the synthetic track at the Punjab Stadium. Arshad threw over 57 m but it also meant that Saqi had to make a quick visit to the Landa Bazaar, a flea market for second hand imported goods in Lahore, to get new shoes for Arshad.

“I wanted the padded shoes used by javelin throwers but then could only get second hand track shoes for Rs 600. Arshad won the gold there and treasured those shoes like the biggest gift for him,” shares Saqi.

Four months after that competition, Arshad would lay his hands on the 800g javelin during the Pakistan Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA) trials in Lahore. Throws of 55 m and over 60m got him selected for a job as a sportsperson with the department. Within four months, Arshad broke the then Pakistan national record of 70.46m.

“It was at the WAPDA trials that Arshad saw a proper gymnasium for the first time. While the Municipal Stadium had a gymnasium, it had no equipment. A body builder friend of mine named Dilbar Hussain offered Arshad to train at his small gym shop in Mian Channu,”says Saqi.

Arshad Nadeem being welcomed at Mian Channu by his supporters earlier. (Special arrangement)

The WAPDA job allowed Arshad to train under five-time national champion and Asian medallist Syed Hussian Bukhari.

“I understood that with his tall build, we have to build his strength for the bigger throws,” Bukhari tells this newspaper. “Initially we started with multiple throws of half kg ball and progressed to 3 kg ball. I would also make him run sprints of 200, 100m as well 75m and 50m. The aim was to make him throw the javelin with his front foot landing straight and him working his upper body as well elbow and wrists to attain the 27-30 degrees angle for the javelin,” remembers Bukhari, who would himself would train at a small park in Lahore and on the sand banks of the river Ravi.

While Arshad would progress from 78.33m to 86.38 in 2021 before finishing fifth in Tokyo Olympics with a throw of 84.62, it was only after Tokyo that people took notice of the youngster. In a video shared by Youtube channel Lok Sujag before Tokyo, Arshad had shared his early days: “While all give me respect, but if we see treatment given to cricket, then I wonder what my level is. I urge the government to give me preference. If I was in Germany or Finland, I would have been world champion,” Arshad had said in 2020.

Despite claiming the 2022 CWG title and a silver in last year’s worlds, Arshad was still left requesting for new javelins earlier this year. A private sports firm had launched an apparel brand by the name Neza (Local word for javelin) and gave Arshad more than 30 lakhs.

“Getting sponsorship from the ‘Neza’ brand was a big relief for Arshad post Tokyo. I don’t want to name the government department but they promised him four javelins post Tokyo but gave him only one. He trained with that javelin, which cost Rs six lakh, for more than three years. When the news reports came out, our PM gave Rs 25 lakh to Arshad to get four new javelins this year,” remembers Saqi.

Arshad Nadeem being welcomed at Mian Channu by his supporters earlier. (Special arrangement)

Recently, Arshad also got a sponsor with a mobile company and last year’s silver in the world championship in Budapest landed Arshad a cheque of 35,000 dollars. The government and federation also sent him to South Africa and China to train. His genial coach Salman Butt, who was also present in Paris and is also the secretary of Pakistan Athletics Federation, had shared with the newspaper Dawn about the facilities. “If you were to compare what we have and what the others have, we are operating on a shoestring budget. We have a camp in Lahore. We try to get a ground – sometimes we get it, sometimes we don’t. This is what we are lacking. We need to develop athlete training centres, elite training centres that are different from regular centres.”

As for the town of Mian Channu, it’s time for celebrations. Hotel owner Abrar Hussain, who owns one of the biggest function halls in the town, too has known Arshad since long. “At an athletics meet, Arshad won the gold and the official saw him in torn shoes. The official gave him two new pairs of shoes. Whatever our town could do, we have done to support Arshad and today as he has won the Olympics gold, we are waiting to welcome him and there have been multiple receptions planned,” says Hussain.

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But coach Saqi knows how Arshad would spend his time on return. “Arshad will give us a dawat (Party) and then for days, I will not see him. He would catch up on his sleep!”

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