From humble beginnings, Pakistan's unlikely champion strikes gold

LAHORE, Pakistan — Arshad Nadeem's home village erupted into rapturous celebrations after he clinched Pakistan's first Olympic medal in athletics, winning gold in the men's javelin and knocking defending champion Neeraj Chopra of archrival India into second place.

Nadeem's triumph on Thursday in Paris is all the more impressive for a man born and raised in a mud brick house in an impoverished corner of rural Pakistan, who was forced as a youth to train in local wheat fields with homemade javelins.

The news of his victory, which reached Pakistan late at night, thrilled his compatriots, drawing congratulatory messages from the nation's leaders and prompting jubilant dancing and fireworks in his normally sleepy home village of Mian Channu.