The most accepted yardstick to judge a country’s standing in the world of sports is its position in the latest edition of the Olympics. Since independence, Pakistan has won three gold, three silver and four bronze medals at the Olympics. Barring two bronze, all the medals have come through hockey.

The bronze medals were won in wrestling (1960) and boxing (1988). Pakistan’s last Olympic medal, a hockey bronze, came in 1992. Since then, hockey has failed to bring any Olympic medal; the closest we reached a medal was in 2000 when the Green-shirts finished 4th.

Hockey continued to present an outside chance of a medal, but the unthinkable happened when Pakistan’s hockey team failed to qualify for the 2016 Olympics — a dubious first.

Regarding other sports, what to talk of medal hope, no Pakistani for last several editions has reached the minimum Olympics qualifying standards.

The country’s representation in disciplines like athletics, swimming, shooting, has been via regional/continental quota or wild cards.

The hockey team has again been unsuccessful in making it to the 2020 Olympics.

In this gloom, great news dropped for the entire nation on December 7 at Dasarath Stadium, in Nepal’s capital Kathmandu.

In the javelin throw, Arshad Nadeem qualified for the 2020 Olympics with a throw of 86.29 metres. It was not only a new Pakistan record but also broke the South Asian Games record, set by Neeraj Chopra, the reigning Commonwealth and Asian Games champion and currently ranked fourth in the world.

Thus, Arshad became the first Pakistani to gain direct qualification in the track and field competition of the Olympics ever since the minimum qualification standards were introduced a few decades back. For the javelin, the qualifying standard is 85.00 metres.

But it isn’t mere qualification. The Mian Channu lad, who won bronze at the 2018 Asian Games and finished 16th at this year’s world championships, is now a distinct medal prospect at the coming Olympics!

The distance of his winning throw at Kathmandu definitely suggests so — 86.29 metres exceeds that of the silver medallist at the 2019 world athletics championships, held in October.

It can’t be labelled as a fluke if Arshad’s performance at the important events in recent times is analysed.

Commonwealth Games (April, 2018): 8th with a throw of 76.02 in the final; in the preliminaries he had reached 80.45.

Asian Games (August 2018): 3rd with 80.75 meters.

World Athletics Championships (October 2019): 16th with 81.52 meters.

Pakistan National Games (November 2019): 1st with 83.65 meters.

The graph shows an upward curve. In fact, this is the theme of Arshad’s athletics career right from the beginning. The strongly built 6’3” tall boy from a small village of tehsil Mian Channu, district Khanewal, who will only turn 23 in January recalls his journey thus far.

“I come from a poor family. During the school days, I mostly played tape ball cricket but also excelled at the athletics throwing events. Though, I did well in discus and shot put in javelin I was way ahead of others,” he told ‘The News on Sunday’.

He climbed up the ladder step by step, winning the javelin event at every level: Union Council, Tehsil, District, Division and Province.

Arshad was only 18 when he became the national champion in 2015. Same year, he was given a job by WAPDA, the biggest employer of sportspersons in Pakistan. “WAPDA looks after sportspersons really well and I owe a lot to my WAPDA coach Fayyaz Hussain Bukhari,” said Arshad.

Next was the international scene. He made an immediate impact, winning bronze at the 2016 SAG in the Indian city of Guwahati. At the same event, Indian sensation Neeraj Chopra won gold, his maiden international medal.

Interestingly, Arshad and Neeraj Chopra have participated in same international competitions quite a few times. At the Asian Junior Athletics Championships 2016, Pakistan’s only medal, a bronze, came through Arshad where Chopra was second.

At the 2017 Islamic Solidarity Games, his bronze was Pakistan’s only individual medal in athletics.

Chopra’s potential was recognised by the Indian sports officials quite early and since 2016, he has had three world reputed foreign coaches. The current coach assigned till the 2020 Olympics is legendary German Uwe Hohn, the former world and Olympic champion. Chopra is rightly hailed as India’s brightest hope for a medal in track and field at 2020 Olympics and is being facilitated accordingly.

It seems the Pakistani authorities have also realised Arshad’s potential; better late than never. He broke Chopra’s SAG record by a good four metres.

“Before the SAG, I was sent to Malaysia for six-month training. I will be going to China on December 27 for two months. I am greatly indebted to Major General (rtd) Akram Sahi, President of Athletic Federation of Pakistan. He has been a source of encouragement throughout. He tries whatever possible within the resources. Through General Sahi’s efforts, I was recently rewarded with five lac rupees by the Punjab government. They are also planning to hire a world class coach, probably from Finland, to train me for the Olympics,” said Arshad.

Finland is called the “home of javelin”. The tiny nation’s men have won seven javelin golds at the Olympics — more than any other country.

One hopes that not only the government but the private sector also extends support to him.

It is vital that Arshad is handled in a scientific and professional manner so that the improvement continues and he touches his peak at the Olympics in July-August.

Track and field has always been the flagship event at the Olympics. All its events are staged at the main stadium where the opening and closing ceremonies are held.

At the last Olympics, of the 205 competing countries, only 87 won a medal. Pakistan had the dubious distinction of being the biggest of the 118 countries returning without a medal. In Arshad, Pakistan has the chance of this century to land an Olympic medal.

ijaz62@hotmail.com