Athlete Arshad Nadeem Commits To Qualify For 2020 Tokyo Olympics

Pakistani athlete Arshad Nadeem has committed to qualify for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics by putting up a good show in the World Athletics Championships scheduled to be held in Doha, Qatar from September 27 to October 7

ISLAMABAD, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 19th Sep, 2019 ) :Pakistani athlete Arshad Nadeem has committed to qualify for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics by putting up a good show in the World Athletics Championships scheduled to be held in Doha, Qatar from September 27 to October 7.

Arshad said he had been going through intensive training under the supervision of coach Syed Fayyaz Hussain Bukhari in the camp set up by the federation in Lahore.

Arshad would depart to Qatar on September 24, for the World Athletics Championships which would also serve as the qualifiers for the Olympics said his competition would be held on October 4 or 5.

"The president of Athletics Federation of Pakistan (AFP) Maj Gen (R) Muhammad Akram Sahi was doing all-out efforts for the promotion of athletes," he told APP.

Arshad won the bronze medal in javelin throw with an 80.75 metres mark at the Asian Games 2018 in Jakarta, Indonesia.

The last time Pakistan won a medal in an Asian games athletics event was in 1994 when Aaqarab Abbas took a bronze in the hammer throw event and since then the country had been unable to produce any talent in athletics.

"The credit for my win in the Asian Games goes to the AFP president and coach Fayyaz Hussain Bukhari," he said.

To a question, he said there was no indoor track for athletes while the open track at Jinnah Stadium was also in a poor state.

"The track was damaged during the wrestling competitions held here last month as heavy equipments were used to set up the stage for the extravaganza," he said while requesting the authorities concerned to repair the tracks.

He also appealed for the athletics competitions of the National Games should be in Peshawar, as the National Games were being staged there. "Moving the athletics competitions to another city would be unfair to the players," he said and added that AFP's annual grant was very low and needs to be increased.

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