KARACHI:

“It is going to be my first Diamond League, I’ve never competed in this before,” Pakistan’s main medal hope for the Paris Olympics javelin thrower Arshad Nadeem admitted humbly.

Arshad will become the first Pakistani athlete to compete at the Diamond League which is no mean feat, come Sunday at the Meeting de Paris.

It is amazing, though, that Pakistan’s most brilliant athlete to put the country on the world map in athletics has never competed in even one of the Diamond League annual series.

The Diamond League Legs are the elite athletic invitational meets held every season in different countries,  spread across five continents where participating athletes get points and have a chance at qualifying for the final.

The final of the series leg at the end of the season is where the Diamond League Champion in their chosen discipline gets crowned.

The Diamond League this year is in its 15th edition, and Paris meet is the eighth leg with the prize money but it is also the first time that it will see a Pakistani in action.

It is a feat that has been beyond imagination for the longest time for the athletes from the country where cricket is held supreme.

The disparity is so great that the facilities available to the athletes in other sports like track and field are negligible or less than satisfactory at best.

However, the Mian Chunnu boy with a big dream will break another ceiling despite being a Pakistani at the international level.

Arshad is taking this event as a test for himself as he is coming back after almost a year since his incredible feat at the 2023 World Athletics Championship in Budapest, where he not only became the first Pakistani to win a silver medal at the event but also booked himself a direct ticket to  Paris Olympics with a throw of 87.82 metres.

In that event too he was coming back from his knee injury. But injuries have been Arshad’s constant companions, he competed and broke the  90-metre barrier at the Commonwealth Games 2022 with an elbow and left knee injury.

The Paris meet is a starter while his main focus remains the Paris Games.

“The Paris event will be a test really, I’ve just recovered from an injury you see,” Arshad told this correspondent. His goal is to end Pakistan’s 32-year Olympic medal drought.

The 27-year-old had gone through a laser procedure in England to recover from his earlier injury in the right knee in December just seven months away from the Olympics.

He began training in February with his coach.

The damage to his knee was bad enough for him to withdraw from the Asian  Games as he had already achieved his target of directly qualifying for the Olympics, that too for the second time.

“This time I picked up an injury right below my right knee, on my calf, it was a muscle strain just three-four days before Eidul Azha. So that became a bit of a concern because my aim is the Olympics, and hopefully a medal in it too.

“So I had to change the plans because of that injury, which occurred due to the hot weather we have and lots of sweating and sometimes dehydration too, so lots of things to be careful of.

“I wanted to compete at an event in Finland before coming to Paris. But we had to skip that due to my recovery,  while the way to Paris has been quite long due to travelling between  countries.”

Arshad received a multiple entry visa for the Schengen region, and his main country happened to be the  Netherlands from where he was to travel to Finland first, and then to  Paris,  and even by dropping Finland from the schedule, the travel time from Lahore to Paris had been exhausting.

“I am adjusting here in Paris now, the weather is far better than what we had back home, so I am enjoying training in that,” the Tokyo Olympics finalist explained.

He trained mainly in Lahore with his coach Salman Butt using local facilities to prepare for his international comeback.

Competition boosts confidence

Arshad said that his goal for preparing the campaign at the Paris Olympics always included a few competitions before the Games.

“I just wanted to get competitions, because I need to know where I  stand. The participation in competitions can give me such confidence because I’ll know what I  am capable of,” illustrated Arshad. “Like how I am going to fare.  Mentally and physically I am in a good place right now. I am feeling  strong.”
 
Eyes on the prize at the Paris meet

“I am in full control now, and the recovery from the muscle strain injury has been well so far,” said Arshad, who arrived for the event between  Thursday and Friday. 

“Here at the Diamond League meet I’ll, definitely, try to do my best and see what happens.

My target is the Olympics, of course, but I want to give my best and make sure I am being careful too because I am coming at the back of an injury, and somewhere in one’s mind that stays, the fact that the injury was there. It lingers in my mind too. 

“If there were no  Olympics and just the meet, then I would’ve probably strategised things differently but for now the aim is to test the waters. See where I am standing. So far I am all good, my technique is good.

“The meet will have eight top competitors and we’ll each get six attempts so I’ll see how I’m feeling, there are one, two, three, attempts and  further, so there is enough space to test.”

Arshad always believes that he competes with himself first and others second. 

“I compete with myself, I focus on my performance during the competition, but still one thinks about others. I think at the Paris meet my main competitors will be Germany’s Julian Weber and Czech thrower Jakub Vadlejch,” said Arshad.

Arshad’s personal best has been 90.18 metres.

On the other hand, it will be an India versus Pakistan scenario with Kishore Jena also competing at the meet. Arshad’s friend and on-field foe Neeraj Chopra has opted out of the event and chose to concentrate on his training for Olympics without this practice meet of sorts.

While Arshad had been battling with injury challenges, Chopra had gone on to bag a silver medal at Doha Diamond League and won gold at Paavo Nurmi Games in Finland last month.

Training in South Africa

Earlier this year Ashad also reunited with Terseus Leibenburg for five weeks in which he said they worked on the run-up and the technique earlier this year.

“I feel I improved my run-up, and we worked on the technique. I can feel the difference with the changes we made, and hopefully, we’ll see what the results look like after this event.”

Arshad also trained with Leibenburg before going to the Tokyo Olympics for two months, but he says this time, he has been more aware of technicalities and expertise.

“When I went to train with him first I was really just caught up with a lot of things, I was paying attention to everything, and I got to learn a lot, I was more aware of how to go about my training and I learned more specific things from him,” said Arshad.

Arshad and Butt are in touch with Leibenburg through online channels and have been receiving guidance regularly.

Heat wave challenge

Meanwhile, training in Pakistan has been a challenge due to the weather conditions as the country has been experiencing heat waves with temperatures and humidity soaring on a regular basis.

The former cricket explained that they had to make sure he protected himself from heat while training and changed their schedule a bit.

“We trained at cooler times, we tried because the heat was bad, but also I am a Pakistani, I’m born here, so I have to get used to these conditions. The excessive sweating made things worse so we tried to go for times that are a bit cooler.

“I am glad I came to Paris right now, people are nice in the weather too, so the body gets some respite from that kind of weather.”

Message for support

In his message to the athletics fans and Paksitani, he reiterated the need for support and prayers.

“I just want to request for support and prayers. Please, keep me in your prayers for this event and also the Paris Olympics because that is the ultimate dream that I need to fulfill for Pakistan. I want to win that Olympic medal for the country after 32 years.”

missed out on a medal at the Tokyo  Games after a close fight, but it was just not my day back in 2021, but now I can feel that things can be different. So, pray for my success, please.”