Importance of Sports

Sports are essential for a child’s mental and physical health. They can improve a child’s academic performance and can also help to strengthen a child’s bones and torn muscles. Sports help in managing weight, enhancing blood circulation, and managing levels of stress. Sports inculcate the importance of a healthy lifestyle in students. Sports is such an activity that it can be taken up by adults, children, and elders. Sports is not considered as an extracurricular activity instead it plays an equally important role as does education. To achieve overall development in life, one should be well-versed in both sports and studies.

Sports also build various personality traits in a child. Sports inculcates a sense of confidence and enthusiasm in a person’s attitude. People who are involved in regular sports practices show qualities of leadership, teamwork, and excellence in their personalities and behavior. Sports help one to deal with failure and enable one to work hard in achieving the respective goals. It instills discipline in people, makes a person active, energetic and increases mental, emotional, and physical state. As you know many fantastic and unique games are played in the world like soccer, badminton, basketball, cricket, long tennis, etc. Every sport is a national sport of one or the other country. Like hockey is the national sport of India, badminton is the national sport of Indonesia, cricket is the national sport of Australia. But today we would be knowing about Javelin Throw.

Javelin Throw

Javelin's throw started in Sweden. It is played since 708BC. It has been a modern game since 1908 for men and 1932 for women. The longest Javelin Throw was 98.48m. Javelin Throw is mainly played in Japan, Finland, Sweden, Norway, etc. It is a national sport of Sweden. In ancient days, people used to hunt animals using spears, fight with enemies, with time it is transformed into sports and is played over the globe.

The Javelin throw is a sport of throwing a spear from a distance. Its overall length must be at least 260 cm. Its weight is at least 800 grams. An athlete throws Javelin as far as possible. It requires strength, coordination, timing, and power. The javelin must land tip first and within the marked 29- degree sector.

The javelin that is used in international men’s competitions is a spear of wood or metal with a sharp metal point. It is constructed by a set of specifications published by the IAAF (International Association of Athletics Federation). The women’s javelin is somewhat shorter and lighter a minimum of 220 cm (86.6 inches) long and 600 grams in weight. The thrower's body should not take a full 360-degree turn before the javelin is released and he may not step beyond a point.

Many athletes have shown their talents in the Javelin throw. In the 2012 summer, Olympics Keshorn Walcott of Trinidad and Tobago bagged the gold medal in the men’s category while the Barbora Spotakova Republic bagged gold in the women’s category. In the 2014 Asian Games, Zhao Qing gang of China bagged the gold medal in the men’s category and Zhang Li of China bagged the gold medal in the women’s category.

The farthest record of men in Javelin's throw was Zan Zelezny from Czechoslovak. He was born in Mlada Boleslav. The farthest record of women in Javelin throw is 72.28 by Barbora Spotakova. Barbora Spotakova is also from Czechoslovak. She was born in Jablonec nad Nisou. This game has been an Olympic Event since 1908, a women’s javelin was added in 1932 to the Olympic program.

Neeraj Chopra

In the 2020 Olympics, Neeraj Chopra won the first prize in the Javelin throw. Neeraj Chopra is an Indian who hails from Panipat. Neeraj Chopra threw the spear at 81.58 m. Later, after Neeraj Chopra won the 2020 Javelin throw he became the world’s second-best player in the Javelin throw. He is also known as 'India’s golden boy'. 

India’s Neeraj Chopra became the second Indian athlete after Abhinav Bindu to be crowned Olympic Champion as he won gold in the men’s Javelin throw at the Tokyo Olympics. He has created history. He has fulfilled the dream of India which the people of India were dreaming of for 121 years This would have taken a lot of practice and hard work to reach this level. He felt unbelievable after winning. The name of the coach is Uwe Hohn from Germany. Neeraj Chopra has taken training from him. He has been awarded a large number of medals. He got the Silver Medal in National Youth Championship 2013. He won Silver Medal in Asian Junior Championship 2017 and Gold Medal in Assign Athletics Championship 2017. He has won Gold Medal in Asian Games 2018. He was also nominated for the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award that is Major Dhyanchand Khel Ratna Award now. He also won the Arjuna Award in 2018. He got the gold medal in the National Junior Championship in 2021. He has also set the Indian National Record of 88.07. Neeraj Chopra’s net worth is 1 to 5 million.

Early life:

Neeraj Chopra was born in Khandra village, Panipat district, Haryana. He had 2 sisters and his family was involved in agriculture. His father works as a farmer. He was a Junior Commissioned officer in the Indian army. Neeraj Chopra loves animals. He started throwing the Javelin at the age of 11. He purchased his first javelin for Rs 7000. To play at the international level he bought a javelin for one lakh.

Neeraj Chopra's Rewards:

• Later, after he had won BYJU’S announced a cash reward of 2crore to Neeraj Chopra and the Haryana government Rs.6 crores.
• Punjab Government gave a cash reward of 2 crores.
• A reward of 1 lakh was given by Gurokhpur Municipal Corporation.
• BCCI and Chennai Super Kings have given Rs 1 crore to him.
• Indigo gave unlimited free travel to Neeraj Chopra for 1 year.

.    .    .