Punjab CM Usman Buzdar will award a cheque of Rs 5 lakh to Arshad Nadeem for his landmark performance: Punjab Minister for Sports, Youth Affairs and Tourism Rai Taimoor Khan Bhatti
Punjab Minister for Sports, Youth Affairs and Tourism Rai Taimoor Khan Bhatti, on Thursday, showered huge praise on Pakistan’s top javelin thrower Arshad Nadeem for winning gold medal in 13th South Asian Games at Kathmandu, Nepal with amazing performance and booking a place in Olympic Games scheduled to be held at Tokyo, Japan in 2020.
Addressing a press conference at National Hockey Stadium, Punjab Minister for Sports, Youth Affairs and Tourism Rai Taimoor Khan Bhatti announced that Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar will award a cheque of Rs 5 lakh to Arshad Nadeem for his landmark performance in South Asian grand event. “Other medalists will also be awarded cash prizes for their outstanding performance. Rs one lakh each will be given to all gold medalists, Rs 75,000 each to silver medalists while Rs 50,000 will be awarded to bronze medalists,” he informed.
Secretary Sports Punjab Adnan Arshad Aulakh, Athletics Federation of Pakistan (AFP) President Maj-Gen (retd) Akram Sahi, Director Sports Hafeez Bhatti and other officials were also present on this occasion.
Punjab Minister for Sports, Youth Affairs and Tourism Rai Taimoor Khan Bhatti said country’s premier javelin thrower Arshad Nadeem, literally, made the entire nation proud through his glorious and world-level performance in the 13th South Asian Games in Nepal.
“Arshad lived up to the expectations of nation and we are really proud of his feats. He did really hard work to gain status of a world class javelin thrower and our young athletes must take inspiration from him,” Punjab Minister for Sports, Youth Affairs and Tourism Rai Taimoor Khan Bhatti added.
Punjab Minister for Sports, Youth Affairs and Tourism Rai Taimoor Khan Bhatti announced that athletics star Arshad Nadeem who became Pakistan’s first ever athlete to qualify for Olympics, would be Sports Ambassador of Sports Board Punjab. “Punjab govt and Sports Board Punjab are ready to extend every kind of support to Arshad for his preparation of Olympic Games”.
“Arshad managed a stunning 86.29 metre throw in Kathmandu to not only better his own national record but also smashed South Asian Games record of 82.23 metre”.
Elaborating Punjab’s future sports projects, Punjab Minister for Sports, Youth Affairs and Tourism Rai Taimoor Khan Bhatti informed that a new prioritize scheme would be launched soon to enhance Pakistan’s medal-winning prospects. “Under new prioritize scheme five games - athletics, wrestling, badminton, weightlifting and boxing have been selected and the young players who will show potential in these games will be further groomed so that they can win medals for the country in international events”.
“The project of Punjab’s first ever Sports School has also been approved by Punjab govt. Young talented players will be given modern sports training besides providing them best education at Sports School”.
“An online Application is also being introduced in Punjab province for the use of sports facilities. Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar will inaugurate this project shortly. Through this App, players and different teams can book sports facilities online and take maximum benefits out of Punjab’s modern sports facilities”.
Punjab Minister for Sports, Youth Affairs and Tourism Rai Taimoor Khan Bhatti hoped that after these effective measures, Pakistan athletes will be able to win medals in Olympic competitions in future.
Punjab Minister for Sports, Youth Affairs and Tourism Rai Taimoor Khan Bhatti expressed his hope that Arshad will present equally impressive performance in Tokyo Olympics and other international events.
Secretary Sports Punjab Adnan Arshad Aulakh also lauded Arshad Nadeem’s achievement saying that Arshad’s amazing performance will provide much-needed encouragement to young athletes of the country. “Sports Board Punjab is fully focusing on providing best sports facilities to talented youth of the province so that they can win laurels for the country like Arshad Nadeem”.
Athletics Federation of Pakistan (AFP) president Maj-Gen (retd) Akram Sahi while addressing the press conference said: “We are planning to send Arshad Nadeem abroad for training on emergent basis after he qualified for the 2020 Olympics. Initially he is being sent to China for training but our preference is top level training in some European country”.
“Arshad has managed such a magnificent throw that now he can win medal in 2020 Tokyo Olympics”.
Arshad Nadeem, on this occasion, thanked Punjab Chief Minister Sardar Usman Buzdar, Punjab Minister for Sports Rai Taimoor Khan Bhatti and Secretary Sports Punjab Adnan Arshad Aulakh for awarding cash prize.