Pakistan’s Olympic champion in javelin, Arshad Nadeem has drawn massive criticism following his lacklustre performance in the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.
On the other hand, Neeraj Chopra and Yashvir Singh of India finished second and third, respectively, while Rumesh Pathirage of Sri Lanka won gold in Glasgow. Nadeem finished ninth with a sub-80 effort. Given that Arshad participated in just one CWG preparatory event in Switzerland in 2026 and that he spent all of his training time in the sweltering heat of Lahore without directly working with any foreign coaches or trainers, the result was not surprising.
Arshad trained with his local coach, Salman Butt, and local trainers after previously training under Terseus Liebengberg, a South African coach. Paradoxically, Glasgow and Lahore had completely different weather.
Indians Steal Spotlight In Javelin
Now contrast this with how Neeraj Chopra, Arshad’s fiercest competitor, and other Indian javelin throwers prepared for the CWG. Neeraj’s colleagues, including Rohit Yadav and Yashvir Singh, trained with international coaches and trainers in Spala, Poland, while he had his last preparation and recuperation camp at his training camp in Biene, Switzerland. In the CWG Javelin throw competitions, India won silver and bronze medals.
In the finals in Glasgow, Arshad, the reigning Commonwealth Games champion who had won gold in the last CWG in Birmingham in 2022 with a best time of 90.12 meters, failed to even surpass the 80-meter mark. His subpar performance ended Pakistan’s chances of winning another medal in the games and prevented him from making it to the final round of eight.
In addition to winning the Olympic Gold Medal with a record throw of 92.97, his fans were disappointed to see him struggle to even cross the 80-meter threshold. Salman Butt, Arshad’s longtime coach, said that Arshad was ill-prepared and not at his best in the CWG.
Rift Between Arshad Nadeem And PAAF?
While Arshad is also to partially 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 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 told PTI 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 .
The PAAF the source said totally distanced itself from Arshad’s preparations and left him on his own and when he made a few request pertaining to his training they were not entertained.
Similarly the PSB also didn’t release any funds for foreign coaches 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 , boxer Fatima Zehra 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.