He suffered a shock exit after failing to reach the top eight
\nKARACHI
\nFayyaz Hussain Bukhari, a former coach of Olympic champion Arshad Nadeem, said the javelin thrower was not at his peak fitness before leaving for the Glasgow Commonwealth Games where he endured a disappointing campaign.
\n\u201cI saw him when he was doing throwing training and did not see the kind of spark in him that was required for winning medals at a major event,\u201d Bukhari told The Express Tribune from Lahore on Sunday.
\n\u201cFitness is the most important thing and the basic element for an athlete. If you are not fit, you should not go for an event,\u201d he said.
\nBukhari, who coached Arshad for eight years and guided him to qualification for the Tokyo Olympics, said fitness had always been his primary focus.
\n\u201cWhen I was Arshad\u2019s coach, I used to focus more on fitness,\u201d he said.
\nRecalling the lead-up to the Tokyo Olympics, Bukhari said Arshad had contracted COVID-19 and was also struggling with an elbow injury.
\n\u201cArshad had COVID and was suffering from elbow pain before the Tokyo Olympics. He had told me that if he did not achieve full fitness, he would not go. However, I worked hard with him and made him fitter and you saw that his throw in Tokyo was quite good,\u201d Bukhari said.
\nHe stressed that athletes should undergo mandatory fitness tests before being cleared for international competitions.
\n\u201cFitness tests are a must before fielding an athlete in any international meet. We have abolished all these things,\u201d he said.
\nArshad endured a shock exit at the Glasgow Commonwealth Games, failing to qualify for the top eight after finishing ninth following his first three throws in the 12-man finals.
\nThe result contrasted sharply with his historic performance at the 2024 Paris Olympics, where he stunned the athletics world with a record-breaking throw of 92.97 metres to win gold.
\nAlthough Arshad won several medals after the Paris Olympics, his performances did not match the standard he had set with his Olympic triumph.
\nThe throws were not of his stature, and it was a worrying sign for the Mian Channu-born athlete with tremendous potential.
\nBukhari was removed as Arshad\u2019s coach by the Athletics Federation of Pakistan (AFP) after the athlete finished fifth at the Tokyo Olympics. Salman Butt was subsequently appointed as Arshad\u2019s mentor and coach and has accompanied him in those roles ever since.
\nDespite the recent setback, Bukhari said he remained confident Arshad could regain top form.
\n\u201cArshad does not need a big throw because he has already managed one at the Olympics. What he needs is to correct his mindset and attitude. These are important things if he wants to achieve more distinctions,\u201d he said.
\nBukhari also criticised Salman Butt, alleging that he had distanced Arshad from both the Athletics Federation of Pakistan and his former coach.
\n\u201cHe has taken the athlete away from the Athletics Federation of Pakistan and his former coach,\u201d Bukhari said.
\n\u201cWe are ready to help him return to his actual position. We have done this before, and we can do this now as well,\u201d he added.
\nBukhari also called for greater cooperation among Pakistan\u2019s sports governing bodies to improve the country\u2019s performances on the international stage.
\n\u201cOur country is brimming with talent and if our sports bodies join hands and work for the promotion of sports, we can do much better in the international circuit,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
He suffered a shock exit after failing to reach the top eight KARACHI Fayyaz Hussain Bukhari, a former coach of Olympic champion Arshad Nadeem, said the javelin thrower was not at his peak fitness before leaving for the Glasgow Commonwealth Games where he endured a disappointing campaign. \u201cI saw him when he was doing throwing …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":68630,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-101163","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101163","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101163"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101163\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":101175,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101163\/revisions\/101175"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68630"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101163"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101163"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101163"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}