Coach Salman Butt praises Arshad ‘excellent’ progression

LAHORE: Arshad Nadeem’s coach Salman Butt is happy with the so far progression of the world silver medallist and said that he is in ‘excellent’ condition.

“Arshad is in excellent condition and he will leave for South Africa within a week for a five to six weeks training,” Salman Butt told ‘The News’.

“Training is good. He has not complained about any pain. We are doing training at the Punjab University and Punjab Stadium after Iftar. Both rehab and training are going together. We undergo three hours training,” said Butt, who also designs coaching courses for World Athletics.

“His rehab was around five to six weeks. Although after surgery it is normally 12 weeks but we are in constant contact with the doctor. Every week we talk to his doctor on skype and we are progressing under his doctor’s guidance,” Butt said.

In South Africa he will be trained by Terseus Liebenberg at the facility of the North West University. Terseus was named as the best coach of the past two decades by the South Africa Athletics Annual, a publication of the South Africa Athletics Statisticians in 2021-2022.

Asked how he coordinates with Terseus Butt said that there are two programmes.

“There are two programmes. I train Arshad through my own programme and I then give Terseus the feedback that you should work on these things. He also assesses and works and then he gives me feedback that he has worked on these things. We share information,” Butt said.

Arshad on Saturday also told this correspondent that he will soon leave for South Africa.

Paris Olympics is a major target for Arshad who struggled for the last few months due to injury.

The right knee injury forced him to skip the Asian Games in Hangzhou last year. A few weeks ago he went to England, underwent laser knee surgery and then started rehab and training immediately after returning home.

After a six-week training in South Africa Arshad will then return and train at Lahore. He also intends to feature in an international meet ahead of the Paris Olympics.

Arshad, whose best throw is 90.18 metre, is the sole medal hope of the country in the Paris Olympics.

This is the second time that he will be featuring in the Olympics. He had finished fifth in the Tokyo Games and it was because of that splendid feat at the biggest stage which made him popular.

Previously too he had received training from Terseus, who is a German, settled in South Africa.