Pakistan’s Olympic gold medallist javelin thrower Arshad Nadeem has come in for criticism after his disappointing in the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. Nadeem finished ninth with a sub-80 effort in Glasgow with Sri Lanka’s Rumesh Pathirage winning gold and India’s Neeraj Chopra and Yashvir Singh finishing second and third respectively.
The outcome was not unexpected, considering Arshad participated in only one preparatory event in Switzerland in 2026 for the CWG and spent his time training in the hot weather of Lahore without working with any foreign coaches or trainers in person.
Arshad, who has previously trained under South African coach, Terseus Liebengberg trained with his local coach, Salman Butt, and local trainers. Ironically, the weather conditions in Lahore and Glasgow were the opposite.
Now compare this with how Arshad’s arch-rival, Neeraj Chopra, and other Indian javelin throwers trained for the CWG.
While Neeraj had his final preparation and rehabilitation camp at his training camp in Biene in Switzerland his teammates like Rohit Yadav and Yashvir Singh trained in Spala, Poland with foreign coaches and trainers.
The result India won the silver and bronze medals in the CWG Javelin throw events.
Arshad, who was the defending champion in the Commonwealth Games after winning gold in the last CWG in Birmingham in 2022 with a best of 90.12 metres, was unable to even cross the 80 metres mark in the finals in Glasgow.
He failed to qualify for the final round of eight due to his poor performance, dashing Pakistan’s hopes of another medal in the games.
For his fans, it was a big letdown to see him struggling to even reach the 80-metre mark, as he had also won the Olympic Gold Medal with a record throw of 92.97.
Arshad’s long serving coach, Salman Butt admitted that Arshad was nowhere his best in the CWG and was under prepared.
While Arshad is also partially to blame for his fall from grace, as he clearly didn’t look 100 percent fit in the finals, he has also had to battle many issues off the track.
The biggest one being that the Pakistan Amateur Athletics Federation totally disowned him after a feud over the retention of Salman Butt as coach last year.
A reliable source close to Arshad said that since late last year, the PAAF and even the Pakistan Sports Board have not made life easy for the Javelin thrower as he prepared for the CWG. The PAAF, the source said, totally distanced itself from Arshad’s preparations and left him on his own, and when he made a few requests pertaining to his training, they were not entertained.
Similarly, the PSB also didn’t release any funds for foreign coaches or trainers to help Arshad train, even in Lahore.
“This is an athlete who is self-made and comes from a village and belonged to a low-income family. But he brought so much glory to Pakistan with his gold medals. And yet he couldn’t prepare properly for the CWG. It is a sad reflection on our sports structure,” former Olympic boxing bronze medallist Hussain Shah said.
Even Pakistan’s first female to win any medal in the Commonwealth Games, boxer Fatima Zahra, has rued that if she had got better training and exposure, she could have won the gold medal in her weight category.
Fatima still managed to bag a bronze in the boxing event until now Pakistan’s only medal in the CWG after sending a 36 member contingent.
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