LAHORE: Salman Butt, coach of world silver medallist javelin thrower Arshad Nadeem, on Tuesday said that the way Arshad delivered in Diamond League in Paris is “satisfactory”.
“If I say in one word then it’s satisfactory,” Butt told ‘The News’ after returning home from Paris. “There are no excuses as everything is in front of you. Before going for Paris we had done only one technique. We had an injury, it recurred, and nothing more was possible with this as there are 15 to 20 techniques,” he said.
“The second thing is that we had got Finland visa and we had to enter Paris from there. We first went to Qatar, then Netherlands, stayed for four to five hours at a train station before spending four hours in train. We reached Paris in 26 hours and after 48 hours we had to compete,” Butt recalled.
“The issue was that he was playing after one year. And you know the first few throws go in feelings. And the other thing was that they gave sixth throw to top three and we did not have an idea about that,” Butt said.
“He was feeling that it was his second last throw. But in a nutshell I can say that we wanted to check and it was satisfactory,” he said. Arshad managed a throw of 84.21m in his fifth and last attempt to finish fourth in the Diamond League which Arshad was playing for the first time.
Butt said that they would try to utilise the remaining time well. “We have to do five techniques and we will go to Paris on July 24 and whatever opportunity of training we get we will utilise that,” Butt said.
“We will need the support of Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) and Sports Board Punjab (SBP) as usual in terms of ground and other facilities. After arrival in Paris on July 25 we will do our routine training and will attend the opening ceremony on July 26 and from July 27 until August 5 we will have enough time to train and it’s a good thing,” Butt said. Arshad is expected to resume training either on Wednesday evening (today) or Thursday (tomorrow) at the Punjab Stadium.
“Yes he is tired and will take some time. We will inshaAlah start training either tomorrow or in the morning on Thursday,” Butt said. Arshad is the only medal hope of Pakistan in Olympics. His personal best throw is 90.18m which he managed in the 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games which was also the Games record.
