Academies, gear sellers, all level to javelin surge after Neeraj Chopra gold

Popular sports activities academies, just like the Chhatrasal Stadium in Delhi, are clocking a rush of recent enrollments. An Olympian says he’s getting “at least half-a-dozen text messages every day” from newbies asking about coaches. And retailers are transport in additional gear.
Neeraj Chopra’s historic gold on the Tokyo Olympics in August has triggered a javelin surge on the grassroots.
So a lot in order that the Athletics Federation of India is transferring to provide the game an additional push. AFI has introduced that every state unit will maintain an annual javelin competitors each August 7, the day Chopra gained India’s first-ever observe and subject gold on the Olympics. Talks are additionally on for an trade programme with Finland, one of many conventional powerhouses of the game.
At the Chhatrasal Stadium, well-known for its wrestling akhara, coach Raman Jha says 40 new college students have enrolled for javelin over the previous two months. “In my 12 years as a coach, I have not seen this kind of interest. After the Olympics, a few of the younger runners asked me if they could switch to javelin. I also get a lot of calls every day from young athletes and their parents, saying they would like to enrol for javelin,” Jha says.
Sunil Goswami, a former nationwide javelin champion who trains kids at Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Delhi, says the “javelin craze” isn’t restricted to the capital area.
“I have friends who are coaches from across the country and they tell me almost everyone wants to take up javelin after Neeraj’s gold. Children from the outskirts of the city turn up at the stadium and request me to train them. There are tennis players, runners and gymnasts who come up to me and say they want to take up javelin,” Goswami says.

Sports gear producers are using the wave, too. Amentum Sports, an Indore-based firm, has seen “at least a three-fold increase” in gross sales since August. Jitender Singh, a associate with Amentum, says the demand for price range javelins, throughout the vary of Rs 10,000, has gone up considerably.
“Things have changed after the Olympics. We are getting calls from all over the country. We have high-end javelins, which cost over Rs 1 lakh too, but at the moment the budget javelins are in huge demand. We also have a few customers who went for a cheaper model earlier and now want to try a better one,” Singh says.
Ashutosh Bhalla, director, Vinex Sports, a provider of javelins to AFI, expects demand to rise subsequent season.
In Delhi, gymnast Arun Kumar, 20, is amongst those that took up javelin lately. Watching the nationwide anthem play with Chopra on the medals podium in Tokyo prompted Arun to make his personal javelin.
“I found a nice bamboo stick and fixed a pointed piece of metal at the end. I tried throwing it early in the morning at the local park. All my throws went wide,” he says. Once he corrected his launch angle with somewhat assist from YouTube movies, Arun purchased himself an entry-level javelin and headed to Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium for formal teaching.
International thrower Shivpal Yadav tells The Indian Express that his cellphone hasn’t stopped buzzing since coming back from Tokyo. “I get calls every day. Whenever young athletes reach out, I try to guide them. I put them in touch with coaches I know,” says the World Military Games gold medallist.
Coach Goswami says that although the spike is encouraging, the important thing to producing champions would be the high quality of teaching as javelin is a extremely technical sport. “We have a handful of javelin coaches in the country. Most of them are former athletes or senior athletes who train juniors. A lot of change has to take place. Kids showing interest is just the beginning,” he says.
Since javelin teaching can not happen whereas different athletes prepare due to the hazard of a misguided spear, children at Chhatrasal have to show up sooner than the remaining. “Lot of kids with no fitness arrive and tell us they want to do javelin. It’s a very difficult sport,” senior coach Sunita Rai says.
“We witnessed a rise in interest in athletics after Delhi hosted the 2010 Commonwealth Games. But the current javelin craze is unprecedented… nothing happens overnight though, Neeraj is a special talent,” she says.