Pakistan’s track and field athlete Arshad Nadeem on Friday bagged a gold medal for the country at the 2022 Islamic Solidarity Games (ISG) in Konya, Turkey.

Nadeem threw the javelin at a distance of 79.40 metres in his first attempt, followed by a distance of 88.55m. He then registered a throw of 75.50m, 82.40m, and then 83.33 metres.

This is Arshad's first gold at the ISG, where at least 4,000 athletes from 56 Muslim countries are competing for a total of 355 medals in in 24 different games.

Before Turkey, the Games had been staged in Saudi Arabia (2005), Iran (2010), Indonesia (2013), and Azerbaijan (2017). The Tehran edition, however, had to be called off following a dispute between Iran and Saudi Arabia.

This is Arshad’s second gold medal in less than a week, as he had registered a similar feat at the recently-concluded Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, UK.

In his fifth and final attempt, the Olympian set a new CWG record of a 90.18-metre throw and became the first Asian to hold the record.