Joy in Pakistan village as local hero Nadeem spears Olympic gold

MIAN CHANNU, Pakistan, Aug 09 (AFP): Dozens of villagers gathered in front of the modest home of Pakistan athlete Arshad Nadeem to watch the hulking javelin thrower take part in the Olympic Games final late Thursday.

The event was broadcast live by a digital projector onto a screen hanging on the back of a truck in his farming village near the small city of Mian Channu in Punjab province.

As the javelin soared through the sky in Paris to a new Olympic record and a gold medal for Nadeem, thousands of kilometres (miles) away the cheers of the villagers rang into the night.

"He did a great throw and created history. We are proud of him," said Nadeem's 35-year-old brother, Muhammad Azeem.

Men danced to the celebratory beat of a drum and others clapped and chanted slogans as it became clear he had won.

The women, meanwhile, sat crowded around a small TV inside Nadeem's home.

"He had promised me that he would play well, go abroad, win a medal and make Pakistan proud," his mother Raziah Parveen said straightforwardly.