Javelin thrower smashes Olympic record to give Pakistan first-ever individual gold

Pakistan might be the fifth most populous country on the planet, but it had never produced an individual gold medallist – until Arshad Nadeem shattered the longstanding Olympic men's javelin record and 76 years of sporting history with it.

The nation's flagbearer was seen as an underdog coming into the final in the early hours of Thursday morning (AEST), but produced an astounding distance of 92.97 metres on just his second throw.

That was not just the longest throw seen in all competition this year, but the best ever produced at an Olympic Games, usurping the previous record of 90.57 set by Andreas Thorkildsen at Beijing 2008 by more than two metres.

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Nadeem also produced the second-best throw of the final with his last attempt, with a 91.79 that also would have been good enough for gold at any previous Games.

Defending Olympic champion Neeraj Chopra wasn't able to meet his pre-Paris goal of breaking the 90-metre barrier, but still threw 89.45m to claim silver for India.

Grenada's Anderson Peters took bronze for his throw of 88.54m.

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Since making its Olympic debut at London 1948, Pakistan's only gold medals had come in men's hockey.

Until Nadeem, Muhammad Bashir (wrestling) and Hussain Shah (boxing) had been the nation's only individual medallists, each taking bronze in 1960 and 1988 respectively.

The gold also breaks a 28-year medal drought, with the country of more than 240 million having missed out on medals of any kind since Atlanta 1996.