International Athlete Arshad Nadeem Excited To Qualify For Olympics

PESHAWAR (APP): International athlete Arshad Nadeem was excited to qualify for the Olympics as he had been working hard in two different training sessions.

Talking to APP, Arshad, who won bronze medal in the Asian Games held in Indonesia, lauded the support and facilities extended to him by Pakistan Athletic Federation, President Maj Gen (Retd) Akram Sahi. He said: “I am working hard under the supervision of coach Syed Fayyaz Hussain Bukhari at the Lahore Athletics training camp under the Pakistan Athletics Federation. Arshad said the qualifying round in Doha, Qatar on September 24, he was confident enough to give good result there.
He said Maj Gen (Retd) Muhammad Akram Sahi, was working day and night for the promotion of athletics in the country and winning a bronze medal was because of his firm commitment.

Responding to a question, he said that till now we do not have a single indoor race track and the track of Jinnah Stadium, Islamabad was also not in good condition. He appealed to the concerned authorities to repair the track of Jinnah Sports Complex.  He said that athletics competitions of National Games would be organized in Peshawar and athletes from across the country would participate. Responding to another question, he said that the government’s grant for athletics federation was less as it could not even hold a National Championship so the government should increase the Annual grant of the federation.

Arshad Nadeem, who plays for Wapda, said that educational institutions at grass root level could play a role in the promotion of sports, adding that the government should ensure sports facilities in educational institutions. “I had come from an educational institution where i used to play Inter-School Athletic Championship,” he said.

To a question, he said that Pakistani coaches were excellent in coaching due to which I had won a bronze medal in the Asian Games. Fayyaz Bukhari said, “Our job was to give the athlete a lot of training and practice, and success lied in the hands of Almighty Allah.

He said “We pray Arshad Nadeem performs well at the World Athletics Championships in the Javelin Throw event.”