India tops medal count in athletics, AFI tweet about Pakistani athlete draws social media reaction

Kathmandu: India won the most number of medals in athletics in the South Asian Games but finished second behind Sri Lanka in gold count as the track and field competitions ended here on Saturday.

India, which sent a second rung team 75 athletes, won 12 gold, 20 silver and 15 bronze for a total of 47 medals. Sri Lanka bagged 34 medals but won 14 gold, along with 12 silver and 8 bronze.

Indian athletes did not win any gold on Saturday while bagging eight medals. That had an impact in the gold medal count as Sri Lanka won five yellow metals on Saturday.

Meanwhile, an innocuous tweet by Athletics Federation of India about a Pakistani javelin thrower winning gold in the South Asian Games and qualifying for the Tokyo Olympics has got big social media response, including from Twitter users across the border.

Pakistan’s Arshad Nadeem won the men’s javelin throw event with an effort of 86.48m while India’s Shivpal Singh (84.43m) bagged the silver. Nadeem also qualified for the 2020 Olympics as he went past the qualifying mark of 85m.

Congratulating Nadeem for the feat, the AFI also posted an old picture of star Indian javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra shaking hands with Nadeem during the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta.

Neeraj had won the gold in the Asian Game with a throw of 88.06m while Nadeem bagged the bronze with 80.75m.

“Congrats #ArshadNadeem, javelin star of #Pakistan for winning gold at #SAGames2019 with a throw of 86.48m (PB & New Pakistani record). Qualified for #Tokyo2020 Olympics, first Pakistani athlete in decades to earn a direct qualification,” the AFI said in the tweet.

The AFI’s tweet posted around noon had more than 1000 likes by the evening but more than that there was a big response from the Pakistani Twitter users.

“Sports has the power to kill all the animosity and hatred between our nations. Thank you @afiindia,” one tweet said.

“This is how India & Pakistan should compete – fierce competition but mutual respect. Thank you @afiindia, you’ve won the internet today,” another tweet said.