Haider Ali made history by winning first-ever gold medal at the Paralympic Games in Tokyo for Pakistan. According to Paralympic Games’s official tweet, Ali threw 55.26 metres on his fifth attempt out of a total of six, about 3 metres longer than Ukraine’s Mykola Zhabnyak, who finished in second place with 52.43 metres.
Congratulations #HaiderAli on winning the first ever Gold Medal for Pakistan in #Paralympics. His discus throw of 55.26m won him the medal, making the whole Pakistan🇵🇰 proud#TokyoParalympic pic.twitter.com/hiro6kMgsI
— Prime Minister’s Office, Pakistan (@PakPMO) September 3, 2021
It’s #Gold for #PAK! F37 discus thrower Haider Ali wins his country’s first medal of the Games!
His throw of 55.26m is a personal best and almost three metres longer than second place! #Tokyo2020 #Paralympics #ParaAthletics pic.twitter.com/SD3rO1qlaF
— Paralympic Games (@Paralympics) September 3, 2021
The athlete suffers from cerebral palsy and participated in the F37 category.Talking to Samaa news, Haider said, “I’m very happy and it was quite difficult to be honest due to Covid. It was difficult for me to train with corona situation in Pakistan. I was training in my home town in Gujranwala because grounds were not available for past 18 months.”
He further added, “Now as I have won this medal all the hard work has paid off and now I feel that nothing is  difficult.”
Nation congratulates Haider Ali on making history and making Pakistan proud!
Paralympian #HaiderAli made the country proud by winning the first-ever gold medal for Pakistan in #Paralympics. He achieved the feat in the Men’s Discus Throw competition, recording his personal best throw of a striking 55.26m.#Tokyo2020 pic.twitter.com/kPKW4PZDg9
— Government of Pakistan (@GovtofPakistan) September 3, 2021
Congratulations #HaiderAli for coming the first Pakistani to win the title in the discus throw competition at #Tokyo2020 Paralympics Games.#Gold Welldone! You have made the history and the whole nation proud of you Masha’ALLAH #HatsOffToHaiderAli pic.twitter.com/dGWudAoOGf
— Faisal Javed Khan (@FaisalJavedKhan) September 3, 2021
Congratulations #HaiderAli. You made us all proud. Keep on inspiring all of us. ❤️ https://t.co/nYcYL0QgVd
— Babar Azam (@babarazam258) September 3, 2021