The Athletics Federation of Pakistan (AFP) Secretary-General, Mohammad Zafar, has said they are not sending the country’s premier javelin thrower, Arshad Nadeem, back to South Africa due to visa issues and time factors ahead of the World Championship.
“He is not going back to South Africa. There is a visa issue and the time factor is a big hurdle; we cannot send him back to South Africa. We are going to get a US visa for him and his interview has been fixed for June 1 and after that, we will plan.”
Arshad Nadeem will be representing Pakistan in the upcoming 18th edition of the World Athletics Championships, 2022 scheduled in Eugene, Oregon, United States from July 15–24, 2022.
Recently, Arshad returned home from South Africa where he and Mohammad Yasir, a fellow athlete, were busy in training. He had also trained for a couple of months at Lahore under the virtual guidance of Terseus Liebenberg.
While talking to the media, Mohammad Zafar said that the official date for sending Nadeem to the US is July 12 but they want to send him a bit earlier than the event so he could train in that environment for a few days.
“We are going to discuss whether we can send him by July 1 to the US so that he could train in that environment for a few days. Officially and as per the World Championship rules we can send him to the US by July 12 but we want to send him a bit earlier as we have scrapped the previous plan to send him back to South Africa after getting another visa for him,” the official said.
Speaking to the media on his return, Nadeem said that he does not know whether he is going back to South Africa or not but going to the US a few days earlier will be of immense value for him.
“I plan to leave for Lahore today to join the camp as I cannot waste time due to some major events ahead. I don’t know whether I will go back to South Africa as it will be decided by the federation but I personally think that going to the US a few days earlier will be of immense value for me ahead of the World Championship,” said Arshad.