Away from social media buzz, TN javelin thrower carving his niche

CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu’s T Dharanidharan has come a long way. There was a period when the 18-year-old javelin thrower struggled to even compete in events and afford a pair of shoes, but now the teenager is steadily carving a path towards the top.

Over the past three years, Dharanidharan has shown good consistency, clinching several medals and breaking records along the way in state-level competitions. In only his second meet at the U-20 level on Sunday, Dharanidharan finished third with a best throw of 71.31m at the Indian Open Throws meet in Patiala. In the process, he surpassed the World Athletics U-20 Championships qualifying mark of 68.50m.

While a few others have also breached the qualifying mark, only two athletes from a country can qualify in a single event for the U-20 Worlds. The Junior Federation Cup in April will serve as the final selection competition.

Dharanidharan with his elder brother T Kanishkar – an up and coming javelin thrower – began their journey in Pappanadu village in Thanjavur district under coach Manikandan, who has played a key role in shaping their careers.

“I have been training under Manikandan sir for the last five years. He left his physical education job to train us. The journey has been tough as we had to borrow money from our neighbours to travel for competitions. But I feel happy to have reached this level now and hope to qualify for the U-20 Worlds, which will be huge,” Dharanidharan told TOI from Patiala.

Manikandan was working as a cricket coach at a CBSE school in Kumbakonam and later left his job to train several students at the Pappanadu government school. Manikandan took care of his athletes expenses and received some monetary support from Kumanan, an Indian residing in America.

In an era when most youngsters are glued to their smartphones, Manikandan’s trainees lead a different life. Dharanidharan does not own a smartphone and instead uses a basic phone. For him and his fellow trainees, the real source of joy lies not in gadgets but in training hard and striving to excel in the sport.

“I don’t give smartphones to any of my students as I want them to focus on their training and keep away from social media,” Manikandan said.

Elaborating on Dharanidharan’s progress, the coach said: “Initially Dharanidharan started with pole vault but that did not work out. Then I wanted him to focus on javelin throw as he was tall (182cm). Until last year, he did not have a good shoe and because of that he got injured in a meet. In Coimbatore, Dharanidharan’s brother Kanishkar once broke a record while competing with spikes borrowed from his friend.

“In November 2024, Alagappa Group of Education chairman Ramanathan Vairavan sir came forward to support us and from then we are training at their academy in Karaikudi. They are looking after all our needs and in the past year it has been easy for us to compete, which was not the case earlier.”

Dharanidharan is still in his off-season and has a lot left in his tank. “My aim for Dharanidharan is to get to the 76-77m range at the junior Federation. Technique wise he is very good and we need to concentrate on speed and block.”