Pakistan's athlete Arshad Nadeem lost his chance at Olympic glory in the men’s javelin throw on Saturday with less than a one-metre throw.

However, Nadeem’s efforts throughout the competition at Tokyo 2020 won many hearts and brought people together as demonstrated by #ArshadNadeem being the top trend on Twitter.

After the competition ended, a user took to social media to laud Nadeem for winning hearts of people.

Thousands of social media users, government officials and sports personalities sent prayers and good wishes to the 24-year old young athlete before Saturday's event.

The Prime Minister's office in a message on Twitter sent prayers of victory for Nadeem.

Cricketer Sana Mir Tweeted: “Prayer mode is on for Arshad Nadeem”.

People set up a big screen in Nadeem’s village to watch his performance as seen in various social media videos.

While the players were entering the field, the commentator introduced Nadeem saying it is fantastic to see a “quality Pakistani athlete.”

In the first round of the final, Nadeem secured the fourth spot, but couldn’t score better in the last round of the competition and his final score remained 84.62m throw.

India’s Nareej Chopra, Nadeem's main rival, secured gold medal with his 87.58m throw.

Hailing from a village of Mian Channu, Punjab, Nadeem was the first athlete from the country who had directly qualified for the final round of the Olympics.

Nadeem finished above Germany’s Julian Weber and Czechia’s Jakub Vadlejch to win his group and a place in the medal round with an 85.16 throw, a performance that got his coach out of his seat applauding.

Earlier, weightlifter Talha Talib stood fifth in the men’s 67kg weightlifting category, missing bronze by only two kilogrammes.

Mahoor Shahzad, who was the first Pakistani to represent the country in badminton at the Olympics, lost the first round to Akane Yamaguchi.