New Delhi: Para javelin has, over the years, emerged as one of India’s sureshot medal sport at major international meets with a number of athletes across classifications regularly winning laurels. While not as dominant, F51 club throw has steadily come along as a successful event, delivering medals at the Paralympics, Para Asian Games, and Para World Championships.
India’s first international club throw medal arrived at the World Para Championships in Doha in 2015, and in just ten years, Indian throwers have racked up two Paralympics medals to go with nine at the Asian Para Games medals and five at the Worlds. The rise has been rapid and consistent, and on Thursday, India will be expected to add two, if not one more medal to their Worlds kitty with Dharambir Nain and Pranav Soorma leading the charge in men’s F51 event at the ongoing World Championships in New Delhi . A few days later, reigning world champion Ekta Bhyan will defend her title on the home turf.
“It’s a great chance to not just retain the world title but also to create awareness about para sports and club throw in particular,” Ekta said.
F51 category involves athletes with high impairment to their trunk, legs, and hands. The competitors throw from a seated position in their competitions using the limited mobility of their arms and wrists. The unnatural contortions take time to get used to, and the muscle memory that forms the bedrock of an athlete’s performance is practically non-existent. The clubs weigh between 397-422gm and have gentle perforations at the base to offer some grip.
Not surprisingly, when Amit Saroha decided to pursue the sport just three years after a spinal cord injury in a road accident left him paralysed neck-down, there were few takers and even fewer believers. “There was a ‘no-entry’ sign for me wherever I met,” said Saroha. The 40-year-old is a pioneer of club throwing in India and if not for a hairline fracture to his left leg after he fell from his bed just weeks before the competition, he would be competing at the Delhi event.
Saroha took up mentoring and coaching very early in his sporting life and is credited to have nurtured Dharambir and Ekta into world beaters. Pranav, the third Indian in fray for a F51 club throw medal, is also a Saroha protege. Pranav, Dharambir and Saroha won gold, silver and bronze respectively at the 2023 Asian Para Games in Hangzhou, a moment that Saroha calls a “milestone” in club throw’s journey in India.
“It was among the happiest days of my life as two of my students had beaten me. I knew I was no longer a lone ranger,” he said.
A year later, Dharambir and Pranav did an unprecedented Indian 1-2 at the Paris Paralympics, an unthinkable feat considering the concept of club throw itself was absent in the country until 2010.
“I met an English coach named Anthony at the Commonwealth Para Games in 2010 who encouraged me to take up club throw. I hadn’t even heard of that sport until then. He later sent me a club from England which kickstarted my journey,” said Saroha, who was dabbling with discus and shot put at the time.
Club acquired, finding a coach was another major challenge as no coach that Saroha met had the experience or expertise in training a quadriplegic. “People would simply turn me away, telling me that club throw is not even a sport. I managed to get my correct classification done with great difficulty as people didn’t know what to do with this wheelchair bound quadriplegic,” Saroha laughed.
With no coach in sight, Saroha decided to become a self-taught athlete. Clubs were procured from England as was rugby wax which is used as a glue to grip the club. “YouTube was not popular back then, there was very limited knowledge about the sport. I came to know that athletes are required to use a glue because our palms have too little sensation to feel the grip,” he explained.
“We have no real muscle memory simply because the muscles do not register sensations. So, we go by trial and error and try to remember what clicks. Sometimes we release the club from the tip of the fingers and sometimes we hold it deep in the palm.”
Glue plays a major role too. Since the athletes can’t grip the club, the glue helps the club stick to the palm and fingers just enough. It’s a tricky step because too much glue would mean the club will become too sticky and too little will let the club slip. The glue changes properties with temperature — store it at too high temperature and it becomes runny and when kept at too low a temperature, it becomes too thick.
“When we travel to cold temperatures, we pack the glue between our woolens and when we go to warm climates, we carry an ice box. All our athletes are trained to take care of these things,” he said.
While Saroha wishes to continue competing till the 2028 LA Paralympics, coaching is his next destination. There’s enough evidence to suggest he wouldn’t be a misfit.
“I hope the journey that I started becomes a revolution and people take up this sport. We (quadriplegics) don’t need sympathy. All we ask for is dignity. I hope our medals are for greater good.”
