Arshad, Yasir qualify for javelin throw final at Asian Athletics Championship

It was a cake-walk for both the Olympic champion Arshad Nadeem and Mohammad Yasir Sultan to qualify for the final of the Asian Athletics Championship being held in South Korea.

On Friday morning, the duo had to make just one attempt to blast their way into the Saturday's final.

Arshad was seen in fine element as he managed a superb throw of 86.34 meters to assert himself as the world's dangerous athlete.

Pakistan's No2 javelin thrower Mohammad Yasir Sultan managed a 76.07-meter throw to also qualify for the final.

Arshad is an undisputed javelin king of the world, having dashed the Olympic record by managing a huge throw of 92.97 meters in Paris Olympics last year.

Arshad is competing at international level for the first time since the Olympics. He is also the World Championship silver medalist and eyes a record in the global event to be held in Tokyo in September.

Of the 21 athletes, 12 qualified for the final. The other javelin throwers who qualified for the continental event final include Rumesh Thatanga Payhirage of Sri Lanka (83.31m), Yuta Sakiyama of Japan (81.36m), Sumedha Jagath of Sri Lanka (81.33m), Sachin Yadav of India (79.62m), Ryohei Aral of Japan (77.85m), Yash Vir Singh of India (76.67m) Taepoong Nam of Korea (76.26m), Hu Haoran of China (75.56m), Ali Fathi Ganji of Iran (73.41m) and Abdulrahman Alazemi of Kuwait (72.84m).

In the final, Arshad is likely to dash the Asian Athletics Championship record of 86.72m also which is held by Cheng Chai tsun of Chinese Taipei which he had managed in the 2019 Asian Championship in Doha.

However, for Yasir Sultan final will be of great value. It would be seen how he delivers on that pressure day. His coach Fayyaz Hussain Bukhari was confident about Yasir.

"He is in shape and he will do wonders tomorrow," Fayyaz told Nukta from Korea.

Yasir has stuck around 79.93metre which he had done in the 2023 Asian Championship in Bangkok where he had claimed bronze.

His coach says that he has 85m plus throw in him and it would be a perfect stage for Yasir when he will be competing in the final alongside the world's top player Arshad Nadeem, who leads the pack and will be an inspiration for the other finalists to learn from.

Meanwhile, Pakistan's seasoned sprinter Shajar Abbas also did well in the 200m when he cleared the first round with a time of 21.15 seconds to qualify for the semi-finals. Shajar had faced exit in the 400m semi-finals the other day.

Shajar, regarded as a fine sprinter, has now shifted his focus towards the 400m event where he sees a chance for himself in future.