Javelin ace Arshad Nadeem has walked away with a fourth place finish at the Paris Diamond League.
The elite one-day track and field event on Sunday was his first international competition of the year, following a precautionary pullout from an event in Finland due to a mild calf muscle injury.
His impressive 84.21 metre throw on his fifth attempt was not enough to secure a podium finish, with Germany’s Julian Weber (85.91m), Grenada’s Anderson Peters (85.19m) and Jakub Vadlejch (85.04m) all finishing ahead of him.
Speaking to Dawn.com from Paris, Nadeem said he felt good about his season opener.
“Hopefully, I’ll be able to do my best at the Olympics,” he said.
His modest first throw of 74.11m was followed by a much improved 80.28m second throw. He then progressed to 82.71m and 82.17m before throwing 84.21m to narrowly miss out on a medal.
The 27-year-old and his coach are headed back from Paris on Monday, where he’ll train in Lahore for roughly two weeks before heading back to the French capital on July 24 ahead of the Olympics Games’ opening ceremony on July 26.
“God willing, I’ll use these two weeks of training to make up for any deficiencies,” Nadeem said.
The goal heading into next month’s Olympics is to land a personal best throw, which currently stands at a whopping 90.18 metres.
Coach Salman Butt was just as satisfied with Nadeem’s performance, especially after a knee surgery in February that the javelin star recovered from quickly in two months.
“So the good news is that his rehabilitation was successful and he can now resume taking part in competitions.
“We [will] continue with training and working on some fine points,” Butt told Dawn.com.
The Olympics will be the first time Nadeem and India’s javelin powerhouse Neeraj Chopra compete against each other since last year’s World Champions, where the former made history by winning Pakistan’s first-ever medal (silver) at the prestigious championship, while the latter bagged gold.
Last week, Chopra clarified that he wasn’t slated to compete at the Paris Diamond League.
The reigning Olympic and World champion has already gotten off to a flying start this season.
He took home a silver medal with a massive 88.36m throw at the Doha Diamond League in May. He then wowed the home crowd at the National Federation Cup with a more modest 82.27m win before heading to his third meet of the season at the Paavo Nurmi Games to take home another gold in 85.97m.
