Why is Arshad Nadeem Not Participating in Lausanne Diamond League? Explained – News18

Arshad Nadeem, the reigning Olympic champion and Pakistan’s only gold-medal winner will not be competing in the upcoming Lausanne Diamond League meeting on Thursday.

Nadeem had finished fourth in the Paris Diamond League on July 7 with a throw of 84.21m. That was the only DL meeting — as well as the lone event apart from the Olympics — he had taken part in this season. He is currently at sixth spot in the standings with five points.

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Reports have suggested that Nadeem has opted to skip the Lausanne leg while the reasons are yet to be named. The Pakistan athlete would likely have opted to take a break after his historic achievement in Paris.

He dethroned the defending champion, Neeraj Chopra with an Olympic Record throw of 92.97 meters in the men’s javelin throw final event.

Since returning home with Pakistan’s first gold in the Olympics since 1984, Nadeem has been showered with cash prizes worth around 280 million, cars and other gifts.

But beyond such personal gifts, Nadeem wanted the government to fulfil his request for a modernised track and field stadium and a university for women in his hometown – Mian Channu.

“We badly need facilities for our women and even men to acquire higher education in our area and nowadays young athletes need to be given the best facilities,” Nadeem said on the ARY news channel.

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This could serve as the perfect opportunity for Neeraj Chopra to make a statement and take home the win in Lausanne. He did not have an ideal performance where he only got one throw on point while the others were deemed as fouls.

Just the one throw was all it took for Neeraj Chopra to get a decent score on the board as he finished with a silver medal behind Nadeem.