CHENNAI: He was not in Bangaon, a small village of a couple of thousands in Haryana. He was sitting in the stands at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Chennai, watching his wards at the junior South Asian Athletics Championships here on Friday. Deepika, one of the most talented girls from his village and academy, was hurling the javelin towards a new mark. In second spot was Poonam, 'another talented girl', according to Hanuman Singh. It is not always that the reputation of a village is tied to the destiny of a bunch of young javelin throwers.
One can sift through pages of records in various junior level events in the country and names of javelin athletes from Hanuman's academy will feature in them all. It is perhaps no wonder that the Athletics Federation of India, taking cognisance of his astounding work at the grassroots level, have made him the javelin coach for this competition – his first international competition as a coach. “I have travelled to national competitions but this is my first international assignment,” says Hanuman.
Deepika, his more famed ward, threw the javelin to 54.98m in the junior South Asian Athletics Championships here, creating another national record. “Girls from my academy have created records in U14, U18, U20 and even U23 competitions,” Hanuman says with modest bearings. Even in Khelo India youth games and university games, his wards are champions and record holders. He seems shy to even say that he has been producing junior champions in javelin from a nondescript village. Interestingly, the story of the academy began even before Neeraj Chopra won his junior world championships gold.
For someone who admits to starting an academy in a poultry farm way back in 2012, the rise of his wards has been more than just a miracle. It’s been an amalgamation of hard-work, dedication and one ingredient that transcends reason – passion. It was difficult in the early days too. “It was not easy back then - some 12 years ago - to convince parents to allow their girls to take up javelin,” recollects Hanuman, who was a national-level javelin athlete. “It was very difficult initially because there were no results to show,” he says. “It was more difficult because girls needed to keep short hair and not wear any jewellery during training.”
As interest grows, coach wants to build new infra
The journey from the dusty grounds of a nondescript village in Haryana to the swanky tracks across India and the world have been punctuated through success. Even back home, things have started to change. With the likes of Deepika, Poonam and Jyoti doing well, there has been interest as well.
Things have changed. The academy rose to prominence as the girls started to do well. As results came by, and with Neeraj Chopra’s Olympic medal in Tokyo 2020, things changed. “The parents now bring their girls and want them to train,” says Hanuman, who however has a cap on trainees. “I keep 25 trainees at the most and right now, I have somewhere about 20 girls,” says Hanuman who met AFI officials including Lalit Bhanot before coming here. The federation has assured full support and has made him the coach for this event. Not just the AFI, the Olympic Gold Quest is supporting a couple of his wards including Deepika. He is hoping more girls will get recognized and supported.
A physical education teacher, Hanuman works at DIET Matana and trains teachers and monitors schools. Training is Hanuman’s passion and a hobby. Sometimes he works for about 15 hours a day. For Hanuman, the biggest challenge right now is laying a synthetic track in the village. He has been training at Aarohi Model School, Bangaon, for the last two years and has recently purchased a 4-acre land. He would like to lay a synthetic run-up strip and is hopeful of getting some funds. “My target is to establish the academy by next year,” he says hopefully.
Like all start-ups, his My Jump and Throw Academy too had seen initial days of struggle. Once the wards started producing results, monetary awards, though small, started to flow, which were utilised to purchase equipment and maintain a small gym and ground. They have their own javelin now. With the success of his wards, he hopes he will be able to attract some sponsors and supporters who will help him expand the academy.
He had boys in his academy also but since he is the only coach the workload was getting more gruelling. At the same time, girls have started giving good results. Some of the boys have got jobs and left the village. Hanuman prefers to train girls from the same village and if there is a fixed number, it is easier to maintain discipline and monitor them. “Also they don’t need to travel much,” he says.
