A father recalls: It took a village to get behind Arshad Nadeem's Olympic final qualification

"It takes a village to raise a champion" is an apt way of describing Pakistan's Commonwealth Games champion javelin thrower Arshad Nadeem's rise, as he made it to his maiden Olympic final here on Tuesday. For the record, the only Asian javelin thrower to breach the 90-meter mark isn't reigning Olympic champion Neeraj Chopra, but his cross-border neighbour Nadeem, with whom he has shared a very cordial relationship.

Pakistan, a country where cricket is believed to be the only sport where serious investments come in, Nadeem's achievements aren't because of the system, but despite it. No wonder, villagers in Khanewal in Pakistan's Punjab province celebrated their boy's qualification with a lot of fervour.

"People have no idea how Arshad got to this place today. How his fellow villagers and relatives used to donate money so that he could travel to other cities for his training and events in his early days," his father Muhammad Ashraf told PTI on phone.

Pakistan sent a total of seven athletes to Paris and six of them failed to qualify for the finals of their respective events with Nadeem, 27, now Pakistan's last and biggest hope for a medal in the Olympics. Right after Nadeem's qualification for the finals for the second successive Olympics, there was celebration at his house where his parents, brothers, wife and two children and fellow villagers raised slogans of 'Pakistan Zindabad'. His parents also distributed sweets.

But his father says the work is still not done."If my son can bring home an Olympic medal for Pakistan it would be the proudest moment for us and everyone in this village," he said.

He recalls that when his son first took up javelin throwing and had to go for trials and competitions up country, how his fellow villagers would all chip in with contributions for his journey.

"If he wins a medal, it will be a triumph for everyone in our village and our country," he said.

Pakistani hopes are high as Arshad has won a silver medal at the World Championship last year, and also gold in the Birmingham Commonwealth Games in 2022.

When he won gold, he became the first Pakistani athlete since 1962 to do so at the CWG. He took the gold with a massive throw that covered 90.18m distance. On Tuesday he qualified for the finals with a throw of 86.59 m, but his main rival and India's gold medal hope, Neeraj Chopra produced a massive throw off 89.34 to top the qualification chart.

The rivalry and camaraderie of Nadeem and Neeraj is well documented as in the last Olympics in Tokyo. While the Indian star won gold for his country, his rival finished in fifth place in final standings.

Few months back, when Nadeem appealed for authorities to replace his old javelin with a new one for his training, Neeraj promptly supported Arshad's case on social media. Since first emerging on the scene in competitions, Nadeem had made significant progress in his career and his family, and fans are confident he can better the fifth place finish in Tokyo.

Despite his career being hit by elbow, knee and back problems for which he even required a knee surgery last year, and burdened by the lack of top facilities and equipment available to athletes of other countries, Nadeem has already achieved a lot by getting the Pakistani people to closely follow his feats instead of cricket.

On Thursday, he faces a Himalayan task in the javelin throw finals. No Pakistani athlete has ever won a Olympics gold medal in any individual competition leave alone track and field.