Pakistani javelin thrower Arshad Nadeem has won his country’s since 1992 after an Olympic record throw of 92.97 meters (just over 305 feet).
In doing so, Nadeem becomes the first athlete from Pakistan to ever win an Olympic gold medal in an individual event.
Nadeem landed his record effort with his second throw of the night, and nobody else could get close to him after that.
India’s Neeraj Chopra, Nadeem’s nearest challenger, failed to defend his Olympic title. He was more than three meters behind, with a best throw of 89.45 meters.
Anderson Peters of Grenada took the bronze medal, while , who had dreams of bettering his fourth place at the Tokyo Games in 2021, could only manage sixth place.
It was a high quality final. The top five throwers all would have won the gold medal in Tokyo with their efforts on Thursday.
The Olympic record had stood since the 2008 Beijing Games, when Andreas Thorkildsen of Norway threw 90.57 meters on his way to defending his Olympic title.
Nadeem, who won the Commonwealth Games title in 2022, finally got one over on Chopra. He finished second to his Indian rival at the most recent world championships in Budapest last year.
Edited by: Darko Janjevic
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